/
HISTORY
DEARBORN AND OHIO CODNTIES,
INDIANA.
FROM THEIR EARLIEST SETTLEMENT.
C01TT^I3Sri3SrC3-
A HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES; THEIR CITIES, TOWNSHIPS, TOAVNS, VILLAGES,
SCHOOLS, AND CHURCHES; REMINISCENCES, EXTRACTS, ETC.; LOCAL
STATISTICS; PORTRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMINENT
men; BIOGRAPHIES; PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS ON THE
HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY, THE
STATE OF INDIANA, AND THE INDIANS.
ILHiTTSTI^J^TEID.
CHICAGO:
F. E. WEAKLEY & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1885.
Cu^ CHICAGO: 4 .)
>^~^« John Morris Company *^^ *
^ ^ printers. ^ j
PREFACE.
TT^HE generation of hardy men, who first settled the region comprising
-L the counties whose history is given in this vohime, has nearly all passed
away. The names and deeds of those who encountered the perils of Indian
warfare, endured the privations of pioneer life, and, with rifles by their
sides, cleared away the giants of the forests, rescuing from savages and wild
beasts the lands the present generation possesses in peace, should not be
forgotten. It is the purpose of this volume to give the history of their
achievements, and to record the growth and development of these counties,
that the present and future generations may know something of what it cost
to give them this fair land, and who were the brave men and noble women
who converted a wilderness into the smiling region we now behold.
More than a year has elapsed since the prospectus of this work was
issued. This period has been spent in its preparation, during which every
township and neighborhood have been visited and information obtained by
conversation with old residents and men of intelligence. Several hundred
manuscript pages have been received from gentlemen in various parts of the
counties. The compilers have explored the original records of the counties
and availed themselves of all published sources of information. They have
searched out every book, pamphlet and document relating to the history of
southeast Indiana in the State Library at Indianapolis, the library of the
Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society at Cincinnati, and the public
libraries at Indianapolis and Cincinnati. In this way they have been enabled
to present a larger and more varied amount of historical matter concerning
the region along the Ohio and west of the Great Miami, than was ever
before embodied in a single volume.
The five preliminary chapters were prepared for this work, and will be
found to contain facts concerning the early history of Indiana, not given
in any history of the State yet pu.blished.
The township histories are designed to chronicle annals of each neigh-
borhood, thus rescuing fi'om oblivion much interesting and valuable local
history that would otherwise be lost through the death of early settlers, and
the ravages of time.
The biographies, at the close of the history of the counties, are arranged
in alphabetical order. They were prepared, for the most part, by the can-
vassing agents of the publishers. These sketches may be found in succeed-
vi PREFACE.
ing years to possess an interest and value which will cause the book to be
much sought after by exploi-ers in genealogies and family histories.
In the preparation of the chapters on "The Miami Purchase" and
' 'Indian Depredations' ' the writers have had the aid of the valuable papers
of the late Dr. Ezra Ferris, of Lawrenceburgh, whose sketches have never
been published in book form. They relate chiefly to the first six years of
the settlement between the Miami Rivers. It is believed that every import-
ant fact contained in them concerning the early history of the country about
the mouth of the Great Miami will be found in the following pages. The
printed sketches and manuscripts of Geo. W. Lane, who has long taken
a deep interest in the pioneer history of Dearborn County, have been freely
placed at the disposal of the i^ublishers. We also desire to express bur
obligations to the venerable Samuel Morrison, of Indianapolis, George Sut-
ton, M. D. , of Aurora, and Samuel F. Covington, of Cincinnati.
The writers have faithfully aimed at accuracy, but he who expects to find
the work entirely free from errors or defects, has little knowledge of the
difficulties attending the preparation of a work of this kind. Some errors
ai*e unavoidable. The publishers trust that the book will be received in a
generous spirit, which is gratified at honest efForts, and not in a captious
spirit.
To county, town, and township officers, editors, members of the bar,
physicians and many intelligent citizens, the publishers are indebted for
favors and generous assistance. The Publishers.
CONTENTS.
iz
PAGE.
Sketches of Some Deceased Physicians 165
Dr. Jabez Pereival 165
Dr. Ezra Ferris 168
Dr. Jeremiah H. Browor 167
Dr. David Fisher 169
Dr. Mathias Haines 170
Dr. Henry J. Bowers " 173
Dr. Nelson Horatio Torbet, 173
Dr. Basil James 173
Dr. Robert Gillespie 174
Dr. Hugh T.Williams 174
Dr. Myron H. Harding 174
CHAPTER XL— Journalism.
The Dearborn Gazette 176
The Indiana Oracle 176
The Indiana Palladium 177
The Western Statesman 177
The Political Beacon 179
The Indiana Whig :; 180
The Democratic Register 181
The Independent Press 181
The Lawrenceburgh Press 182
The Indiana Signal 182
The Dearborn Democrat 182
The Western Republican 182
The Western Commercial 182
The Aurora Standard 183
The Independent Banuer 183
The Aurora Commercial 183
The People's Advocate 183
The Dearborn Independent 183
The Aurora Spectator 183
The Rising Sun 184
The Rising Sun Times and Farmer's Journal 184
The Rising Sun Journal 184
The Indiana Patriot 185
The Indiana Blade 185
The Indiana Whig 186
The Rising Sun Herald 187
The Rising Sun Mirror 187
The Hoosier Patriot 187
The Indiana Republican 187
The Neutral Penant 187
The Indiana Weekly Visitor 187
The Hoosier Paper 188
The Observer and Recorder 189
The Ohio County Recorder 190
The Saturday News 190
The Rising Sun Local 190
CHAPTER XIL— Ohio River Floods.
Climate of the Ohio Valley 191
Effect of the Removal of Forests on Floods... 191
The Flood of 1788-89 192
An old Memorandum 192
The Flood of 1832 192
The Flood of 1847 194
The Flood of 1882 194
The Flood of 1883 196
The Flood of 1884 197
Relief of Sufferers at Lawrenceburgh 198
Table of High Water Marks 198
CHAPTER XIII.— Military History.
Revolutionary Soldiers in Dearborn and
Ohio Counties 199
Dearborn Countv in the War of 1812 200
Namesot Soldiers of the War of 1812 201
The Mexican War 202
The Civil War 203
Dearborn County in the Civil War 203
Company I, Seventy-seventh IndianaVolun-
teer Infantry (three months' service) 208
The Seventy-seventh Regiment (three
months' service) 208
Company C, Seventh Regiment (three yeans'
service; '.. 209
The Seventh Regiment Indiana Volunteer
Infantry 210
Company C, Eighty-third Indiana Volunteer
Infantry 211
The Eighty-third Regiment Infantry 212
PAGE.
The Second Battery Light Artillery 214
Company B, Fourth Cavalry 216
The Seventy-seventh Regiment 216
The Morgan Raid 219
Unfortunate Occurrence During the Raid... 222
Drafts and Bounties 223
Tabular Account of County Expenditures... 224
Aid Societies 224
Closing Scenes of the War 225
'HAPTER XIV.— List of Officers.
Territorial Judges of Dearborn County 226
Circuit Judges 226
tJommou I'leas Judges 227
Associate Judges 227
Probate Judges 227
Members of Territoral Legislature 227
Members of Constitutional Conventions 228
Members of State IjCgislature 228
Board of Magistrates and County (Commis-
sioners 230
Treasurers 231
Clerks 232
Recorders 232
Sheriffs 233
Auditors 233
United States Officers 233
State Officers 234
Ohio County Officers 234
Circuit Judges 234
Common Pleas Judges 234
Associate Judges 235
Probate Judges 235
.Sheriffs 235
Recorders 235
Clerks 236
Auditors 236
Treasurers 236
County Commissioners 236
Members of the State Legislature 237
CHAPTER XV.— City of Lawrenceburgh.
Lawrenceburgh Laid Out
Origin of its Name
Capt. Samuel C. Vance
Newtown Laid Out
Edenborough
Early History and Progress ol I ^\lcnLC-
burgb
Principal Citizens in 1813
The Town Described in 1815
Horse-thief Hanged near Tannti s < let k
The Anderson House
Lawrenceburgh Sunday-school Socittv
Daniel Brown
Celebration of the Fourth of Julv in 18')
Business Interests in 1826
Lawrenceburgh in 1828 Deecribed
The Murder of Palmer Warren
Trial, Conviction and Execution o( Vm isa
Fuller
Progress of the City from ISl'.o to ls4ii
Independence Day, 1831
Lawrenceburgh a City
Cirowth and Progress
Odd Fellows' Building
Business of the City— 18.58-59
Banks
Great Fire, July 4, iscc,
Churches
Methodist Episcopal < hurch
Baptist Church
First Presbyterian Church
Henry Ward Beecher in Lawrenceburgh
Catholic Church
German Evangelical Zion Church
Lutheran St. John's Church
German Methodist Episcopal Church
Christian Church
Trinity Episcopal Church
Early Schools
Graded Schools
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
High School 281
Leading Manufacturing Interests 283
Gas Works 297
Fire Department 297
Societies 299
""^^-^Old Landmarks 301
Centennial Fourth of July 302
CHAPTER XVI.— OiTY of Aurora.
Aurora Laid Out 303
Aurora Association for Internal Improve-
ments 304
First Sale of Lots 305
Early History of the Village 306
Reminiscences 309
First Magistrate of Aurora 311
Mayors of the City 314
Telegraph and Telephone 315
Business Exhibit in 18.58-59 315
(jirowth and Progress 317
Great Fire of 1882 320
Floods 321
Schools 324
Fire Department 327
Churches 328
Baptist Church 328
Methodist Episcopal Church 331
Presbyterian Church 332
St. John's Lutheran Church 333
Catholic Church 334
German Reformed Church 335
St. Mark's Episcopal Church 335
Christian Church 336
Leading Jlanufacturing Interests 338
Grand Opera House 352
Postmasters 353
Societies 353
CHAPTER XVII.— City of Rising Sitn.
Location 355
Origin 3.56
Founders of Rising Sun 357
The Early Village 3.58
First Merchant 359
Incorporation 360
Independence Day, l.s34 360
The Town in 183.5-36 361
Main and Front Streets in 1833 363
Pen Picture of the Town in 1845 369
Steam-boat Building and Boating 374
Early Postmasters 370
Telegraph 377
Leading Manufacturing Interests 377
National Bank 382
Churches 382
Methodist EpiscopaRhurch 382
Presbyterian Church 384
Christian Church 385
TTuiversalist Church 386
Baptist Church 386
(German Reformed Church .• 386
Shiloh Baptist Church 387
Schools 387
Rising Sun Seminary 389
(iraded Schools 396
Great Fire of 1866 397
Fire of 1885 398
Cemeteries 399
Societies 400
Rising Sun Insurance Company 402
Flat-boat Insurance 405
Centennial 1 'ourth of July 407
CHAPTER XVIII.— Lawrenceburgii Township.
Boundaries and Organization 409
First Land Sales 410
Pioneers and Pioneer Settlement.? 411
Incidents of Pioneer Times 418
Antiquities 420
Schools, Churches and Graveyards 421
Mills and Distilleries.. '. 423
Hardinsburgh 424
Greendale 424
CHAPTER XIX.-Center Township. ^^^^'
\ Organization and Boundaries 425
^ First Land Sales [ 496
Early Settlement '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 427
Pioneer Reminiscences 428
"Saw-mill," the Indian 432
Early Religious and Educational Notes 4.34
Cochran 434
River View Cemetery 4.36
CHAPTER XX.— Randolph Township.
Boundaries and Organization 437
^ , Land Entries .' 437
"- Pioneers and PiuneiT Settlmients 439
The Fultons 440
The Brown Family 445
North's Landing...! 450
ilillersburgh .' 452
Mills and Distilleries 453
Schools, Churches aud (aaveyards 454
CHAPTER XXL— Miller Township.
Boundaries aud Organization 456
Government Land Sales- 457
V Pioneer Settlements 458
-sj Notes on the Early Settlers 461
Mills '. 463
Schools, Churches, Crraveyards 464
CHAPTER XXII.— Union Township.
Boundaries and Organization 467
Original Land Purchases 467
Early Settlements 468
An Indian Story 470
Mills and Distilleries 471
First Schools 471
Churche.s and Graveyards 472
Mounds 473
Milton 474
Hartford 476
Miscellaneous 477
CHAPTER XXIIL— Hogan Township.
Boundaries and Organization 478
Original Ljvnd Sales 478
Early Settlements 479
Notes on the Early Settlers 482
Early Schools and Industries 484
Churches and Graveyards 485
Wilmington 486
CHAPTER XXIV.— VVashington Township.
Boundaries and Organization 489
Land Entries ." 489
Early Settlements 490
Notes on Early Settlers 491
Early Schools.. 493
Churches and Graveyards 494
CHAPTER XXV.— Clay Township.
Organization and Boundaries 495
First Land Sales 496
Early Settlement 498
Reminiscences of Laughery 500
Mills 503
Schools, Churches aud Graveyards 503
DUlsborough 505
CHAPTER XXVI.— Cesar Creek Township.
Boundaries and Organization 507
Original Land Sales 507
Pioneer Settlements 508
Noteson FirstSettlers 510
First Schools 511
Early Mills 512
Churches and Graveyards 512
Farmers' Retreat 514
CONTENTS.
xi
PAGE.
CHAPTER XXVII.— Pike Township.
Boundaries and Organization 514
First Land Sales 515
Early Settlements 516
Early Industries 518
Churches, Schools and Graveyards 519
Freedom, or Cole's Corners 521
CHAPTER XXVIII.— Harrison Township.
Organization and Boundaries 522
First Land Sales 522
Early Settlements 523
Mills and Distilleries 527
Schools, Churches and Graveyards 528
Harrison 533
Ancient Remains at Harrison 534
CHAPTER XXIX.— Manchester Township.
Boundaries and Organization 537
First Land Sales 537
Early Settlements and Pioneer Merchants... 541
Churches, Schools and Graveyards 549
Mills and Other Industries 552
Hamlets 554
CHAPTER XXX.— Sparta Township.
Boundaries and Organization 656
Original Land Sales 556
Early Settlements and Events 559
Industries 561
Schools, Churches and Graveyards 561
Moore's Hill 564
Moore's Hill College 567
CHAPTER \ XXL— York Township.
Boundaries and Organization 569
Government Land Sales 569
PAGE.
Early Settlements 571
Mills 573
Schools, Churches and Graveyards 573
Yorkville 576
CHAPTER XXXIL— Kelso Township.
Boundaries and Organization 577
(iovernment Land Sales 577
Early Settlement 579
Dover 579
New Alsace 581
St. Leon 582
CHAPTER XXXIII.— Cass Township.
Boundaries and Organization 584
Government Land Sales 584
Pioneer Settlements, Incidents and Tradi-
tions 585
Industries 589
Schools, Churches and Graveyards 589
Aberdeen 591
CHAPTER XXXIV.— Jackson Township.
Boundaries and Organization 592
Early Settlements 595
Schools, Churches and Graveyards 596
Industries 598
Hamlets 599
CHAPTER XXXV.— Logan Township.
Boundaries and Organization 600
Government Land Sales 600
Early Settlers 602
Mills 6C2
Schools, Churches and Graveyards 603
Logan Cross Roads 604
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.'
Biographies of Dearborn and Ohio Counties,
Alphabetically Arranged 605-987
ies out of place :
bhn Smith
Vincenes Frank.
PORTRAITS.
William S. Holman
James H. Lane
William D. H. Hunter..
George Sutton
Myron H. Harding 171
John Hornberger Facing 296
Shadrach Hathaway Facing 355
Lawrenceburgh in the Flood.
VIEWS.
.Facing 191 | Dearborn County Court House 240
*In the various Township Histories under the head of Early Settlers, Pioneers or a similar heading
appear references to, and short sketches of many of the early residents of the Counties of Dearborn and
Ohio not given in this department of the volume.
PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS,
CHAPTER I.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
The Title of Virginia to the Territory Northwest of the Ohio-The
French IN Indiana-Gen. Clark's Eeduction of the British Posts
-Organization of the Northwest Territory-First Counties in
Indiana-Knox County-Gen. Clark's Expedition Against the
Wabash Indians-Gen. Charles Scott's Expedition-Col. James
Wilkinson's Expedition-Gen. Josiah Harmar's Expedition-St.
Clair's Defeat— Wayne's Victory.
INDIANA, as a civil division bearing the name, dates its existence
from July 4,1800, when the act of Congress creating Indiana Terri-
tory went into effect. It then included Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.
The United States census of 1800 found in Indiana 5,641 inhabitants.
In 1805 Michigan Territory was struck off, and, in 1809, Illinois; from
the latter year Indiana dates its present limits. December 11, 1816,
the Territory was admitted into the Union as a State. From its first
exploration by white men Indiana constituted a part of New France until
1763, when it was ceded by the French to the English. In the treaty of
1783' Indiana was included in the territory yielded by Great Britain to
the United States. While it belonged to the English it was part of the
colony of Virginia, and was ceded to the United States by Virginia in
1784, from which time until the formation of Indiana Territory, it
formed a part of the Northwest Territory.
Virginia acquired title to the great territory northwest of the Ohio by
its several charters from James I, and especially from the one bearing
date of May 23,1609, in which were granted all the territory along the coast
for 400 miles, and extending "up into the land throughout from sea to
sea." Virginia first attempted to exercise authority over this vast domain in
1769, when the House of Burgesses passed an act establishing the
county of Botetourt, with the Mississippi River as its western boundary.
20 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
Fincastle, Va., was the seat of justice of this extensive county. In
October, 1788, a Virginia statute provided that "all the citizens of the
Commonwealth of Virginia, who are already settled, or shall hereafter
settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct
county, which shall be called Illinois County.'' Col. John Todd served
under appointment of the governor of Virginia as civil commandant
and lieutenant of Illinois, until his death at the battle of Blue Licks in
1782.
THE FKENCH IN INDIANA.
The first explorations and settlements of the whites were by the
French, and were the results of the enterprise of La Salle, who set out
from Canada in 1G79, and passing across the lakes descended the Illinois
River. The Indians inhabiting the country at that time seem to have
made little or no opposition to its occupancy by the new-comers, and
several important French towns were established on the Illinois and
Wabash before the eighteenth century was far advanced. The missions
and settlements of the French were of necessity established along the
routes of travel from Canada to the mouth of the Mississippi. The only
mode of travel was by canoes. Among the portages over which the
French carried their canoes from one navigable river to another, one
was of three miles' length in St. Joseph County, Ind., from the St.
Joseph River to the Kankakee; another was from the Maumee near Fort
Wayne to the Wabash.
The exact period of the first French settlements cannot be ascer-
tained. Early in the eighteenth century a party of French Canadians
descended the Wabash, and several settlements were soon established
along its banks, among others Vincennes. Many dates have been given
of the establishment of Vincennes, some of which are mere conjectures.
Volney conjectured the settlement to have been made about 1735; Bishop
Brute speaks of a missionary station there in 1700; Bancroft says a
military post was formed there in 1716, and in 1742 a settlement of
herdsmen was made; Judge Law dates the post back to 1710 or 1711,
and the New American Cyclopedia says the party of French Canadians
descended the Wabash in 1702 and established towns along the river.
At one time the French settlements were represented as in a flourishing
condition and this part of New France was described as a new paradise,
but the settlers degenerated, became ignorant and slothful, and but little
superior to the Indians among whom they lived.
GEN. Clark's reduction of the British posts.
During the Revolution most of the Western Indians adhered to the
British. The possession by the British of the posts established by the
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 21
French at Detroit, Kaskaskia and Vincennes gave them easy and con-
stant access to the Indian tribes of the Northwest. The bold plan of
defeating and expelling the British from their Western posts was con-
ceived and brilliantly executed by a Kentucky backwoodsman, George
Rogers Clark. By spies seut for the purpose, who were absent from
April 20 to June 22, 1777, Clark satisfied himself that an enterprise
against the Western settlements might easily be successful. He went to
Virginia and submitted his plans to the government of that State. Gov.
Patrick Henry gave him written instructions, authorizing him to enlist .
seven companies to serve under his orders for three months. Clark's
rank at this time was lieutenant colonel. He raised three companies
at Pittsburgh, and descended the Ohio to the falls, where he was joined
by another company of Kentucky recruits. He left the falls with four
companies on the 24th of June, 1778, during a total eclipse of the sun.
He descended the river to Fort Massac, and thence proceeded by land
to Kaskaskia, a distance of over 100 miles. Heavy rains had fallen, and
were succeeded by hot, sultry weather. Their route lay through a wil-
derness without a path. On the prairies a July sun beat upon them.
Their guide became bewildered. On the 4th of July this party of in-
vaders, with torn and soiled garments and beards of three weeks' growth,
came in sight of Kaskaskia. The town contained about 250 houses, and
the inhabitants were mostly French. Clark sent forward some of his
men who could speak French to pass through the streets, making procla-
mation that all the inhabitants must keep within their houses, under
penalty of being shot down in the streets. The next day the little army
of invaders marched into town in two divisions, and in two hours all the
inhabitants surrendered and gave up their arms. Not a drop of blood
was shed, but the victory was complete. A few days later Clark sent
a detachment mounted on French ponies to Cahokia, thirty miles dis-
tant, and obtained a surrender of the fort and garrison at that point.
An embassy was sent to Vincennes, and in a few days the American flag
was floating from the fort and the French inhabitants brought over to
the United States.
Clark was compelled to leave only a diminutive force to hold posses-
sion of Vincennes, and the British Lieutenant-Governor, Henry Hamilton,
then at Detroit, formed the plan of retaking the|place, in which he suc-
ceeded without difficulty. The latter had a considerable force of British
regulars, French volunteers and Indians. Clark with his main force was
at Kaskaskia, and his position one of great peril. His number of men
was too small to stand a siege and his situation too remote to call for re-
cruits. He formed the bold and hazardous scheme of capturing Gov.
Hamilton and retaking Vincennes.
22 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
February 7, 1779, Col. Clark with bis little army commenced its
march from Kaskaskia to Vincennes. Their route lay through prairies
and points of timber. The winter was unusually wet, and the streams
all hio-h. On the 13th of February they arrived at the Little Wabash
and'Muddy Rivers. The rains fell every day, and here the men were
compelled to wade to their waists, and sometimes to their armpits in mud
and water. On the 18th, eleven days after their departure, they heard
the morning gun of the fort at Vincennes. On the evening of the same
day they were at the Wabash, below the mouth of the Embarjrass. The
party was now in an exhausted condition; the river was out of its banks,
and all the low grounds covered with water. Again making their way
through deep waters they arrived in full view of the town a little before
sunset on the 21st. In order to make his force appear formidable, Clark
ordered his men to march and countermarch in such a manner that from
the intervening ground the enemy were led to count them twice or thrice.
Ten or twelve pairs of colors were so displayed on long poles as to be
seen above the intervening high land, and from a distance made no des-
picable appearance. Gov. Hamilton was awed into a surrender, which
was formally made on the 24th.
The expedition of Col. Clark was not excelled in difficulty, daring
and heroic endurance by any during the Revolution. The march from
Kaskaskia to Vincennes was one of extraordinary hardship and enterprise.
The whole expedition resulted in the successful reduction of all the
British military posts between the Ohio and Mississippi, gave tranquility
to the frontier settlements, and secured to the United States the whole of
this vast territory. The'^Virginia Legislature passed a complimentary
resolution to Clark and his men for their victorious campaign, "whereby
great advantages may accrue to the common cause of America, as well as
to this commonwealth in particular. "
ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
After Virginia and other States had ceded to the United States their
claims of jurisdiction aad soil to the territory lying northwest of the
Ohio, it became necessary for Congress to establish civil government in
the new extensive region. Accordingly in the summer of 1787, while
the convention which formed the constitution was in session at Philadel-
phia, Congress at New York passed an "Ordinance for the government
of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio,"
which has come to be best known as "The Ordinance of '87." This was
the most important act of Congress under the Articles of Confederation,
For nearly twenty-nine years it was the fundamental law of Indiana, S.
P. Chase in his history of Ohio said of it: "Never, probably, in the
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
23
history of the world, did a measure of legislation so accurately fulfill,
and yet so mightily exceed the anticipations of the legislators." Its
object^ was declared to be to "extend the fundamental principles of civil
and religious liberty which form the basis whereon these republics, their
laws and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish those principles
as the basis of all laws, constitutions and governments, which forever
hereafter shall be formed in the said territory; to provide also for the
establishment of States and permanent government therein, and for their
admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with
the original States at as early periods as may be consistent with the
general interest."
The territory for which this ordinance provided a government em-
braced all the land then belonging to the United States northwest of
the Ohio. It extended from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, and from
the Ohio to the great lakes. Five States have been organized from it:
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The territorial gov-
ernment was organized soon after the passage of the ordinance and at
first was vested solely in a governor and judges. The first governor
was Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who was president of Congress when
appointed. In 1788 he entered upon his duties at Marietta. During
the continuance of the first grade of government, there was no capital of
the territory in the proper sense of the term. Laws were passed by
the governor and judges wherever they happened to be assembled.
Some were enacted at Marietta, some at Cincinnati and a few at Vm-
cennes.
CD.
About the 1st of January, 1790, the governor, with other ofiScers,
descended the Ohio from Marietta to Fort Washington, at Cincin-
nati, where he organized Hamilton County, which embraced the western
part of the State of Ohio. On the 8th of January, the governor and
secretary arrived at Clarksville, at the falls of the Ohio, on their way to
Vincennes. From the falls they proceeded by land along an Indian trail
to Vincen nes, where they organized the county of Knox, the fourth county
organized in the Northwest Territory. It comprised all the territory
along the Ohio between the Great Miami and the Wabash. Vincennes
was made the seat of justice. Thence they proceeded to Kaskaskia, and
there esta blished the county of St. Clair, comprising all the territory from
the Wabash to the Mississippi, and named by the secretary Winthrop
Sargent, in [honor of the governor. Knox and St. Clair Counties were
organized for the protection of the French inhabitants, and to carry into
efifect the agreement in the ordinance of 1787 with reference to the pres-
ervation of their rights under the laws and customs already existing
among them. At Kaskaskia the governor issued a proclamation, calling
24 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
upon tbe French inhabitants to exhibit the titles to their lands, in order
to have them examined and confirmed and their lands surveyed.
GEN. Clark's expedition against the wabash Indians.
The first important expedition which passed over the Territory of
Indiana against the Indians was the unsuccessful one of George Rogers
Clark against the Wabash Indians in 1786. Many depredations had
been committed in Kentucky by marauding bands crossing the Ohio,
plundering, burning and scalping. The bands were chiefly from the
Miamis and the Wabash. Congress having failed in its efforts to secure
peace with the Indians by the treaty at Fort Finney, ordered two com-
panies down the Ohio to the falls, and on June 30, 1786, authorized the
raising of militia in Kentucky for the invasion of the country of the
hostile tribes. The expedition was organized into two parties, one under
Gen. Clark to march against the Upper Wabash country, the other, under
Col. Benjamin Logan, was to proceed against the villages on the head-
waters of the Great Miami.
Col. Logan, with 400 or 500 mounted riflemen, crossed the Ohio
near Maysville, Ky., and passing northward succeeded in destroying
some Indian villages in what is now Logan County, Ohio, killing about
twenty savages and taking about seventy prisoners.
Gen. Clark was not so successful. With about 1,000 men he marched
from the falls of the Ohio for Vincennes, and arrived near that place in
October. His supplies were to be forwarded to that place by boats.
Nine boats had been freighted with stores to descend the Ohio to the
mouth of the Wabash, and then to ascend to Vincennes. The low state
of the water retarded the arrival of the boats. The army lay encamped
awaiting the arrival of provisions. Day after day passed. One thou-
sand hungry men consume much food. The men were put on short allow-
ance. Many became restless and mutinous. At last, after waiting nine
days, the boats arrived, but to their disappointment the meat was found
to be spoiled by the hot weather. There ^were sound rations for only
three days, and there was a march before them of 200 miles. The mu-
tinous spirit became more apparent. Gen. Clark urged an immediate
and rapid advance. The Kentucky Volunteers were re-enforced by a
number of the inhabitants of Vincennes, and the army started on its
march up the Wabash. On reaching the mouth of the Vermillion, it was
found that the Indians had deserted their villages on that stream. Dis-
appointment, hunger and fatigue now led to open mutiny, and 300 men,
with some oflficers of high I'ank, mounted their horses and left for their
homes. Neither the commands, the entreaties, nor the tears of the com-
manding general could avail. Nothing was left to Clark but the aban-
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 25
donment of the expedition. With the remainder of his half- starved men,
the unfortunate commander ^worked his way back to the falls, covered
with shame and confusion. This was the last expedition of the bril-
liant military genius, George Kogers Clark, and the first one which re-
sulted unfortunately.
GEN. CHARLES SCOTt's EXPEDITION.
In January, 1791, President Washington laid before Congress his
views of the proper measures for protecting the Western settlements from
Indian depredations. He expressed a very decided opinion that another
campaign against the Wabash Indians was indispensable. These tribes
were estimated at 1,100 warriors, to which were to be added 1,000 be-
longing to more distant tribes. The President held that, although winter
imposed peace at that time, unless the attention of the tribes was directed
to their own country, they would spread desolation over the frontier on the
opening of spring. Congress authorized the President to raise an army
of 3,000 men, to be placed under the command of Gov. St. Clair, who
was appointed a major-general, and also a corps of Kentucky volunteers
for the purpose of a rapid march and immediate attack on the Wabash.
This corps was placed under the command of Gen. Charles Scott.
On the 23d of May, 1791, Gen. Scott, with a force of about 800
mounted men, crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Kentucky and com-
menced his march for the Wea towns. They pressed forward with the
utmost celerity, but the rain fell in torrents, and wore down their horses
and injured their provisions. The country was intersected and made
rough by four branches of the White River and other smaller streams,
many of them having steep and muddy banks. On the Slst of May
they had made 135 miles from the Ohio. June 1, at a distance
of 150 miles from the Ohio, they came in sight of two small villages on
their left, at a distance of two and four miles respectively, the main town
being about five miles in front. The General sent a detachment under
Col. Harding to attack the villages on the left, while he pressed forward
rapidly toward the main town in front. When the main army arrived
at an eminence overlooking the villages on the Wabash, the enemy were
discovered in great confusion crossing the river in canoes, having been
apprised of the approach of the whites by one of their warriors who
had seen them on the preceding day. All the savages in five canoes were
destroyed by a well directed fire. The Wabash, at that point, was too
high to be forded, and the Indians kept up a vigorous fire from the Kick-
apoo towns on the opposite bank. Two companies passed down the river
and crossed over and drove the enemy from the Kickapoo village. In
the mean time Col. Hardin successfully executed the order to take the
26 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
villages on the left. He also discovered a third and stronger village
which he also captured, and joined his commander before sunset, having
killed six warriors and taken lifty-two prisoners. The next day Col.
Wilkinson, with 360 men, mai'ched to the Tippecanoe village, which he
took and destroyed, together with a large quantity of corn, peltry and
furniture. On the same day the Wea and Kickapoo towns were burned,
and the gallant army reached the Ohio on the 14:th of June, having ac-
complished the great object of their expedition without the loss of a
single man killed and only four wounded, and having killed thirty- two
of the savages and taken fifty-two prisoners. The General testified
that not a single act of inhumanity had marked the conduct of his men.
COL. JAMES Wilkinson's expedition.
The expedition of Gen. Scott having been successful, on the recom-
mendation of Gen. St. Clair the Kentucky Board of War resolved to
organize another without loss of time, to destroy the Eel Kiver towns,
This expedition was placed under the command of Col. James Wilkinson.
July 20 Col. Wilkinson reported to Gov. St. Clair, at^ Fort Washing-
ton, with 525 men well mounted and equipped. The march began from
Cincinnati August 1. They took with them provisions for thirty
days. Instead of taking the direct course toward the Eel River villages,
in order to mislead the enemy the army directed its course toward the
site of Fort W^ayne. The hunting grounds of the Indians in the south-
east part of Indiana, and the most common paths traveled by them were
thus avoided. For three days the northwardly course was pursued.
After about seventy miles from Cincinnati had been made, their course
was turned northwestward. On the 6th they captured a Delaware living
on the Maumee. On the 7th the army reached the Wabash near the mouth
of Eel River. The troops crossed the river and charged upon the town.
The enemy being completely surprised, was unable to make the least re-
sistance; six of their warriors were killed and thirty-four prisoners taken.
Unfortunately in the hurry and confusion of the charge two Indian
women and one child were killed. A white captive in the village was
released. The whites lost but two men killed and one wounded. The
next day the corn was cat down and the cabins burned. Col. Wilkinson
then took up his march toward the Kickapoo towns in the prairie, by way
of the Tippecanoe village. Reaching the latter place, which had been de-
stroyed by Gen. Scott in the preceding June, it was found that the
Indians had replanted their corn and beans. These were again cut down.
While at this place the commander learned of some murmuring and dis-
content among his men, growing out of a reluctance to proceed further
in the enemy's country. This induced him to examine the state of the
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. . 27
horses and provisions, when he ]earned to his mortification that 270 horses
were lame and jaded, and barely five days' provisions left for the men.
Most reluctantly was the Colonel compelled to abandon his design against
the Kickapoos of the prairie. He, however, marched against a village of
the same tribe about three leagues west. This town, consisting of about
thirty houses, was destroyed, with a considerable quantity of corn in the
milk. On their homeward march the army fell into Gen. Scott's home-
ward trace, and arrived at the falls of the Ohio August 21. The men
were mostly Kentucky volunteers, and great praise was awarded by the
commander to the whole detachment. Their entire march from Cincin-
nati to the Indian towns, and then to the falls was by accurate computa-
tion 451 miles, and was accomplished in twenty-one days. Among the
prisoners taken by Col. Wilkinson were the sons and sisters of the king
of Ouiatenon nation.
GEN. JOSIAH HARMAk's EXPEDITION.
The largest and most important expeditions against the Indians of
the Northwest Territory were directed against the Miami towns at and
near the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, where they form the
Maumee. The region about the site of Fort Wayne was probably more
thickly populated with savages than any other in Indiana. The junction
of the rivers was the site of an old and important town of the Miami
tribe. The importance as a strategic point of the site of Fort Wayne
struck Washington's sagacious mind, and one of the objects of the cam-
paigns on the Maumee was to establish here a fort which was to be con-
nected by Intel-mediate stations with Fort Washington at Cincinnati.
The first of these campaigns was under the command of Gen. Josiah
Harmar. He marched from Cincinnati, in September, 1790, by a cir-
cuitous route, which he was told by guides was the shortest and best to
the head of the Maumee. Ho had, in all, about 1,300 men, three-
fourths of whom were raw militia, badly armed and equipped. They
were badly supplied with axes and camp-kettles; their arms were largely
out of repair and almost useless, many muskets being brought in with-
out locks, with the expectation of being repaired in camp. Many of the
militia were substitutes unused to fire-arms, who at the first sight of the
Indians threw down their arms and ran. October 13, the army be-
ing within about thirty miles of the site of Fort Wayne, Col. John
Harding, with 600 militiamen and one company of regulars, was sent
forward to surprise the enemy and keep them in their forts until the
main body with artillery would come up. On reaching the villages,
however, they were found deserted. On the 17th the main body arrived,
and five or six towns were destroyed, and about 20,000 bushels of corn in
28 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
the ear cut down. On the 21st the army started on its homeward
march. Unfortunately, on the next day it was resolved that Col. Hard-
ing, with a detachment of 340 militia and sixty regulars, should return
to the burned villages on the supposition that the Indians had returned
thither. They succeeded in finding the Indians early the next morning.
A severe engagement ensued; the savages fought with bravery. The
troops were defeated, many of the militia and most of the regulars being
killed. Dispirited by this misfortune and dissensions among his officers,
Harmar returned to Cincinnati. The expedition is known as Harmar's
defeat. In its purpose of intimidating the Indians it was entirely un-
successful, but in its object in destroying the Miami villages it was com-
pletely successful. The towns were taken and 300 houses and wigwams
barned without the loss of an American soldier. The subsequent efforts
to defeat the savages in battle were unsuccessful. The Indians looked
upon the expedition as a failure and defeat, and it was followed by vig-
orous efforts on their part to harass and break up the American settle-
ments. To carry out their purposes more effectually. Little Turtle, chief
of the Miamis, Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawnees, and Buckongahelas,
chief of the Delawares, engaged in forming a confederacy strong enough
to drive the whites beyond the Ohio.
ST. CLAIR S DEFEAT.
The unfortunate expedition of Gen. St. Clair was organized during
the year 1791. He was instructed by the War Department to march for
the village at the head of the Maumee, in order to establish a strong and
permanent military post at that place, and to establish such posts of
communication between that place and Fort Washington as he should
judge proper. "The establishment of such a post," said the Secretary
of War, "is considered as an important object of the campaign, and is
to take place at all events." September 17, St. Clair, with about
2,300 men, marched from Ludlow's Station, near Cincinnati. No-
vember 3, the army arrived at a creek running to the southwest, and
which was supposed to be the St. Mary's, one of the principal branches
of the Maumee, but was afterward found to be a branch of the Wabash.
Early on the morning of November 4, the army was surprised and met
with a most disastrous defeat. Of the 1,500 men engaged in the battle,
more than half were either killed or wounded. It was the greatest ca-
lamity to the disheartened and greatly harassed pioneers of the North-
west Territory, and the most disastrous defeat of the Americans by the
Indians. The battle occurred near the Indian line in Mercer County,
Ohio, the battle-field being afterward known as Fort Recovery.
INDIANA TERRITORY. 29
Wayne's victory.
IiD mediately after the defeat the Federal Government took steps to
raise another large army to operate against the hostile tribes. Nearly
three years passed, however, before the confederated hostile tribes were
met by Gen. Anthony Wayne, whose army numbered more than 3,000
men, well disciplined and finely ofl&cered, 1,600 being mounted volun-
teer troops from Kentucky, commanded by Gen. Charles Scott, of that
State. Wayne's decisive victory occurred August 20, 1794, near the
Maumee Rapids, in Wood County, Ohio. The battle is known as the
battle of the Fallen Timbers, though sometimes called the battle of the
Maumee. Had not the Indians, apprised of the approach of the armies
of St. Clair and Wayne, gone forth from their principal villages to meet
them, the disastrous defeat of the one and the decisive victory of the
other would have taken place on the soil of Indiana, and not Ohio.
Cessation of the long and bloody Indian war followed Wayne's victory,
and a peace was secured, which continued unbroken until the battle of
Tippecanoe, sixteen years later.
CHAPTER II.
INDIANA TERRITORY.
Division of the Northwest Territory— Organization of Indiana
Territory— Condition of the Territory at its Organization—
The First Governor— Tecumseh and the Prophet— Fear of In-
dian Hostilities— Battle of Tippecanoe— The Slavery Question
IN THE Territory— The War of 1812— Indiana Admitted into
the Union— Progress of the State.
THE vast extent of the Northwest Territory made the ordinary opera-
tions of government extremely uncertain, and the efficient action
of courts almost impossible in the western parts of the Territory. In
the three western places of holding courts, Vincennes, Cahokia and Kas-
kaskia, there had been held but one court having criminal jurisdiction in
the five years from 1795 to 1800. Offenders against justice having no fear
of punishment, the French settlements became an asylum for the most
vile and abandoned criminals. A committee of Congress, March 3,
1800, recommended a division of the territory into two distinct and sep-
arate governments. Accordingly, May 7, 1800, an act was passed by
Congress making such division by an act which took eifect from and
30 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
after the succeeding 4th day of July. The western division was called
Indiana Territory.
The first boundary of Indiana Territory on the east was not the same
as the eastern boundary of the State. The ordinance of 1787 provided
that the middle State which should be formed out of the Northwest Ter-
ritory, should be bounded on the east by a line drawn due north from
the mouth of the Great Miami River, and the committee of Congress
which proposed the division of the territory recommended that the divis-
ion should be made by this line. The act of Congress, however, made
the Greenville treaty line, as far as Fort Recovery, the boundary line.
The line of division was described as "beginning at the Ohio, opposite
to the mouth of the Kentucky River, and running thence to Fort Re-
covery, and thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line be-
tween the United States and Canada. " The Greenville treaty line is found
marked on some of the maps of Indiana. Fort Recovery was in Darke
County, Ohio, about one mile east of the State line. When Ohio was
made a State the line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great
Miami was made its western boundary, and the lands between this line
and the Greenville treaty line were attached to Indiana Territory.
CONDITION OF THE TERRITORY AT ITS ORGANIZATION.
At the time of its organization Indiana Territory comprised a vast
region almost uninhabited except by savages. The only settlements of
white men were so widely separated that it was impossible for them to
contribute to their mutual defense or encouragement. These settlements
were four^in number. The first was at Clark's Grant, at the falls of the
Ohio opposite Louisville; the second the old French establishment at
Vincennes, on the Wabash; the third comprised a series of French vil-
lages, extending from Kaskaskia, seventy-five miles below the site of St.
Louis, to Cahokia, five miles below St. Louis; the fourth was Detroit, on
the Detroit River. The capital was at Vincennes, at this time often
written Post Vincents. Numerous tribes of warlike Indians were scat-
tered throughout the northern portion of the Territory, whose hostility to
the American settlers was inflamed by the intrigues of British agents
and frequent outrages by American hunters and traders.
Clark's Grant in Indiana was a reservation by Virginia in her cession
of the Northwest Territory to satisfy the claims of Gen. Clark and the
ofiicers and soldiers under his command in the conquest of the British
posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. The quantity of land in the grant
was stipulated not to exceed 100,000 acres, to be laid off in one tract, the
length of which was not to exceed double the breadth, and in such place
on the northwest side of the Ohio, as a majority of the officers should
INDIANA TERRITORY. 31
choose. The tract was selected and located about the falls of the Ohio,
and distributed among the claimants according to the laws of Virginia.
An act of the . Legislature of that State was passed "to establish the
town of Clarkesville, at the falls of the Ohio, in the county of Illinois,"
by which a board of trustees in whom the title of the town was vested
in trust. They were directed to sell lots of half an acre each at public
auction, subject to the condition that the purchaser should within three
years from the date of sale erect a dwelling-house "twenty feet by eight-
een, with a brick or stone chimney." The trustees located the town im-
mediately at the foot of the falls. Its position at the head of keel-boat
navigation on the lower Ohio was supposed to give it great advantages,
and it was for a time a rival of Louisville. Jefferson vi lie, at the head
of the falls, occupied the site of Fort Steuben. Midway between these
places and on the opposite side of the river was the then unhealthy town
of Louisville, which, in 1800, contained a population of 359 souls, and
about 150 houses, a printing office and a postoffice.
From the falls of the Ohio, settlements spread over Clark's Grant.
Vincennes, the capital of the Territory, is described by contemporary
writers at the period of the establishment of the territorial government,
as a handsome town of about 100 houses, some of which were built of
freestone. From Cincinnati, settlements extended up the Whitewater
Valley. On the first Monday in April,^ 1801, the first sale of lands west
of the Great Miami was held at Cincinnati. In the closing years of
the last century, before the establishment of a land office for the sale of
any lands in Indiana, squatters had begun to occupy Government lands
in the southeastern part. Land offices, at which, lands in Indiana were
sold, were established by the United States as follows: At Cincinnati,
May 10, 1800; at Vincennes, March 26, 1804; at Jeffersonville, March
3, 1807; at Indianapolis and Crawfordsville, March 3, 1819; Fort Wayne,
May 8, 1822.
From Cincinnati, the most important town in the eastern division of
the Northwest Territory, to Vincennes, the capital of Indiana Territory,
was a laborious journey through the wilderness. A common method of
making this journey was to embark on the Ohio in a Kentucky boat,
sometimes called an ark, with horses and provisions, proceed as far as
the falls, and thence by horseback to the post, more than 100 miles
unmarked by a vestige of civilization.
THE FIRST GOVERNOR.
The first governor of Indiana Territory was Capt. William Henry
Harrison, afterward major-general and President. At the time of his
appointment he was twenty-seven years old, yet he had already served
32 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
under "Wayne against the Indians as lieutenant, and distinguished him-
self for bravery; had been the first delegate in Congress from the North-
west Territory, and had served as secretary of the Territory. As the
secretary was ex officio lieutenant-governor, he had for a considerable
time performed the duties of governor of the Territory before its divis-
ion, Gen. St. Clair, the governor, being rarely in the Territory at that
time, his residence being in Pennsylvania. When the office of governor
of the new Territory of Indiana was first proposed to young Harrison,
he expressed himself as much adverse to accepting it, because he had
reason to believe that Gov. St. Clair would soon be retired from the gov-
ernment of the more populous eastern division (now Ohio), and that he
would be strongly recommended as his successor. It happened, however,
as Gen. Harrison himself has narrated, that two influential supporters of
John Adams' administration were desirous of that position,, and by their
management he became the governor of Indiana Territory. The gov-
ernors were appointed for three years. Harrison was appointed by Presi-
dent Adams in 1800; upon the expiration of his term he was reap-
pointed in 1803 by President Jefferson; in 1806 he was again appointed
by Jefferson; in 1809 he was reappointed by President Madison, and in
1812 again appointed by Madison.
The territorial governors were ex-officio superintendents of Indian
affairs within their territories. A few months after President Jefferson
came into office he nominated Gov. Harrison a commissioner to make
treaties with the Indians, and the nomination was confirmed by the Sen-
ate. The custom of the Government in treating with the Indians had
been to appoint two or more persons to represent the Government as com-
missioners. The reason given by the President for this departure from
the usual course in the case of Indiana Territory, was that Louisiana
had been ceded to the French, and the French understood the manage-
ment of the Indians better than any other nation; that to guard against
their intrigues it was necessary to form settlements on the Mississippi,
the lower Ohio, the Wabash and Illinois Rivers, which could only be
done by extinguishing the Indian titles, and this could not be done at
once, but by watching opportunities. The President, therefore, did not
wish to embarrass the governor with a colleague. ^ Thus it was that
Harrison was the sole representative of the United States in the nego-
tiations with the Indians by which the Indian title to most of the lands
of Indiana was extinguished. Gov. Harrison held this important
commission during the entire period of his government of the Territory.
He negotiated thirteen treaties, and obtained the cession of over 50,000,-
000 of acres in the Northwest, more than double the land now included
in Indiana.
INDIANA TERRITORY. 33
While acting as commissioner, Harrison was allowed, in addition to
his pay as governor, $6 per day and his expenses, and he could assume
the character of Indian commissioner whenever he thought proper. He
was indeed necessarily almost constantly acting under it. The charges
he made for pay as commissioner, however, were only for the time actu-
ally employed in specific negotiation. All the compensation he received
for these services during the twelve years he held the commission did not
exceed 13,000. His charge for one important treaty was $44. It is said
that no man ever disbursed so many and such large sums of public
treasure with so little difficulty in adjusting his accounts with the Gov-
ernment as Harrison while governor. United States commissioner and
superintendent of Indian affairs in Indiana Territory. He wisely
avoided keeping the public money on hand, and always made his pay-
ments by drafts on Washington.
Some of the more important of the early treaties by which the owner-
ship of Indiana lands was transferred to the United States Government,
are here mentioned. In the treaty at Greenville, August 3, 1795, only
a small portion of the lands in the southeastern part of the State was
included. Septenjber 17, 1802, Gov. Harrison entered into an agree-
ment at Vincennes with the chiefs of various tribes by which the bounds
of a tract at that place said to have been given to its founder were settled
and June 7, 1803, at Fort Wayne, the same chiefs ceded the lands
about Vincennes to the United States. . Other treaties were concluded at
Vincennes in August, 1804; at Fort Wayne in September, 1809; at St.
Mary's in October, 1818, and Tippecanoe in 1832.
TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET.
The troubles with the Indians commenced early in the history of the
Territory. In July, 1801, the governor, referring to the lawless acts of
vagabond whites, wrote to the United States Government: "All these
injuries the Indians have hitherto borne with astonishing patience, but
though they discover no disposition to make war upon the United States,
I am confident that most of the tribes would eagerly seize any favorable
.opportunity for that purpose, and should the United States be at war
with any European nations who are known to the Indians, there would
probably be a combination of nine-tenths of the northern tribes against
us, unless some means are made use of to conciliate them." President
Jefferson did everything in his power to protect the Indians and to
induce them to cultivate the soil and adopt the arts of civilized life.
Congress was powerless to prevent the atrocities committed by the worth-
less white men who are ever found prowling along the verge of civiliza-
tion. The outrages were deplored by thousands of good men.
34 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
Early in the history of the Territory, Tecuraseh planned his scheme
of a confederation of all the Indian nations, by which the whites were to
be restrained in their acquisitions of lands. This remarkable man, the
most bold and accomplished warrior and diplomatist the tribes of red
men ever produced, was for much of his active life a resident of Indiana.
He was born not far from the site of Springfield, Ohio, and belonged to
the Shawnee nation, his father and his mother being members of differ-
ent tribes of that extensive people. In 1795 he became a chief. He
resided in different parts of the Miami country, in what is now Ohio,
until 1798, when he accepted the invitation of the Delawares, then
residing in part on White River, Ind., to remove to that region with his
followers. Here he resided a number of years, and gradually extended
his influence among the Indians.
Tecumseh's brother, known in history as the Prophet, was scarcely
less remarkable a man; he was an orator of great power and a religious
teacher. About 1804, according to the accounts usually given, the
brothers began to work in unison on their grand project of uniting all
the Western Indians in one confederacy. Their avowed objects were
two-fold: first, the reformation of the savages, whose habits unfitted
them for continuous and heroic efforts; second, a union which would
make the purchase of land by the United States impossible without the
consent of all the tribes, and would give the Indians a strength that
would be dreaded. In case of war with the whites a simultaneous attack
could be made upon all the frontier settlements, so that white troops
could not be sent from one to the aid of another. In 1805, through the
influence of the Prophet, a large number of Indians collected at Green-
ville. In 1806 both Tecumseh and the Prophet were at Grreenville, and
were visited by representatives of many tribes.
APPEEHENSION OF INDIAN HOSTILITIES.
In the spring of 1808 the brothers removed to a tract of land on the
Tippecanoe, a tributary of the^W abash. Here on a spot probably never
visited by white men, about 100 miles northwest from Fort Wayne, was
the Prophet's town, containing about only 130 souls. Representative
Indians from remote parts here visited the Prophet, who continued his
efforts to reform his brethren by preaching temperance, depicting the fear-
ful evils the fire-water of the white men had brought upon them, and
announcing his commission from the Great Spirit to extricate his red
children from the utter ruin with which they were menaced.
Tecumseh traveled from tribe to tribe, strengthening his influence
and organizing his league. With the enthusiasm of Peter the Hermit
he journeyed over thousands of miles, visiting remote nations of red
li.^
^ lU^L^
INDIANA TERRITORY. 37
men. He visited all the northern tribes on the west bank of the Missis-
sippi, and upon the Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan. In 1807
Gov. Harrison, alarmed at the movements of the two brothers, sent a
message of inquiry and remonstrance, couched in severe terms. The
Prophet sent a reply, denying that he had any purpose to rouse the
tribes to another war. His plan of saving the Indians, he constantly
asserted, was by reforming them from intemperance, uniting them and
encouraging industry. In July, 1808, the Prophet went from Tippe-
canoe to Vincennes, a distance of hundreds of miles, on a pacific mes-
sage to the governor. He came with a large number of followers, whom
he frequently harangued in the presence of the governor on the evils of
war and intemperance. No persuasion of the whites could induce any
of them to touch intoxicating liquors. The Prophet again declared that
it was his desire to live in peace with the whites, and called the Great
Spirit to witness the truth of his declaration. Whether the Prophet
was a religious fanatic or a vile impostor can never be settled.
Throughout the year 1809 Tecumseh and the Prophet continued to
strengthen themselves both openly and secretly. Notwithstanding these
solemn and repeated declarations of peaceful intentions, the Governor
suspected their ultimate designs, and was preparing to meet any emer-
gency. In June, 1809, Tecumseh with about forty followers again vis-
ited the Governor. The Governor wrote to the Government that suspi
cions of his guilty intentions were strengthened rather than diminished
by every interview during this visit of the chief. In September, 1809,
the Governor met the chiefs of several tribes at Fort Wayne, and pur-
chased of them moi'e than 3,000,000 acres of land on the Wabash.
Tecumseh refused to sign the treaty, and threatened death to those who
did. In the year following he visited the tribes as far south as Tennes-
see, exhorting them to lay aside sectional jealousies in the hope of pre-
serving their hunting grounds.
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.
The Governor stood firm and sent for a few soldiers and organized
the militia. In July, 1811, the citizens of Vincennes and its vicinity
met while the legislative council was in session and memorialized the
President on the subject, not so much for a military force from the Gov-
ernment as for permission to fight the Indians in their own way. The
Indians began to prowl through the Wabash Valley. Harrison was
promised strong re-enforcements, with orders, however, to be backward in
employing them. On the 1st of August he advised the Secretary of War
of his plans, which were to again warn the Indians to obey the treaty of
Greenville, but at the same time to prepare to break up the Prophet's
38 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
establishment, if necessary. Having received his re-enforcements, the
Governor, as commander, advanced from Vincennes up the Wabash. On
the 5th of October he was at Terre Haute, where he built Fort Harrison.
Here one of his sentinels was fired upon. October 31 he was at the
mouth of the Vermilion River, where he built a block- house. He then
advanced toward the Prophet's town, still, however, offering peace to
the Indians. When within a few miles of the Prophet's town Harrison
was met by the Indian embassadors, who expressed surprise at his ad-
vancing upon them and said that an answer to the Governor's demands
upon the Indians had been despatched to him by a Pottawattomie who
had left two days before to meet him, but had missed him by taking the
road on the south side of the Wabash. Harrison informed them that he
had no intention of attacking them until he found that they would not
comply with his demands. It was agreed that the army should encamp
for the night and in the morning an interview with the Prophet and his
chiefs should take place, and in the meantime no hostilities should be
committed.
Before daybreak of the morning the treacherous savages crept upon
the camp, burst upon the sleeping army like demons, and before the
light of day was far advanced the battle of Tippecanoe was fought.
Harrison had risen at a quarter after four o'clock, and the signal for
calling the men would have been given in two minutes, when the attack
commenced. Nineteen-twentieths of the men had never been in an
action. They behaved well, took their places without confusion, under
an exceedingly severe fire, and fonght with bravery. The camp fires
affording the enemy the means of taking surer aim, were extinguished.
With coolness and deliberate valor the white men stood their ground in
darkness against the ferocity of the savages, until daylight, and then
routed the red men in vigorous charges. The next day they burned the
Prophet's town and returned victorious to Vincennes.
The battle of Tippecanoe was fought on the 7th of November, 18J 1.
The whites had in this action not more than 700 efficient men — non-
commissioned officers and privates; the Indians were supposed to have
had from 700 to 1,000 men. The loss of the whites was 37 killed on
the field, 25 mortally wounded and 126 wounded; that of the Indians
about 40 killed on the field, the number of wounded not being known.
Among the killed were two Kentucky officers, Col. Joseph H. Daviess
and Col. Owen. The battle-ground was a piece of dry oak land, skirted
on the west by Barnet Creek, with marshy prairies covered with tall
grass on the east and west. At the time of the battle Harrison held no
rank in the army, but as governor he was commander of the Indiana
militia, and under the authority of the War Department he took com-
INDIANA TERRITORY. 39
mand of the whole force. The victory made the commander famous,
and twice, in 1836 and 1840, Indiana cast her electoral vote for "the
hero of Tippecanoe."
At the time of the battle Tecumseh was among the southern Indians.
When on his return he learned that his brother had brought on the
attack and had been defeated, he was exceedingly angry, and it is
said reproached the Prophet in the bitterest terms. The defeat had
destroyed the power of the brothers, and crushed the grand confederacy
before it was completed. Six months^after the battle the United States
declared war with England. Tecumseh left Indiana for Fort Maiden,
in Upper Canada, joined the British standard, participated in several
engagements against the Americans, and for his bravery and good con-
duct was made a brigadier-general. He was killed at the battle of the
Thames, October 5, 1813, in the forty- fourth year of his age. Harrison,
with whom he had so often conferred, was the commander of the enemy
against whom he fought in his last battle.
THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN THE TERRITORY.
Before the formation of the State constitution several efforts were
made to introduce African slavery in a modified form into the Territory
of Indiana. Slavery had been introduced into the Illinois country by
the French as early as 1720. The ordinance of 1787 prohibiting slavery
in the Northwest Territory was a subject of complaint by some, who, by
memorials to Congress from time to time, made efforts to obtain a sus-
pension of the restriction for a limited period. The first petition to
Congress was from four persons in Kaskaskia in 1796, asking that slav-
ery might be tolerated there. Before the division of the Northwest
Territory, and while the first territorial Legislature was in session at Cin-
cinnati in 1799, petitions were presented by Virgiaians, who owned lands
northwest of the Ohio, asking that they might settle with their slaves
on their own lands. These petitions were promptly rejected, as the Leg-
islature had no power to suspend an ordinance of Congress.
Many of the early settlers of Indiana were -from Virginia, Kentucky
and other slave States. A large proportion of the population of the
Territory, while not desiring to make Indiana a slave State, believed
that a temporary employment of slave labor would greatly encourage
immigration and promote the growth and improvement of the country.
Early in 1803 a territorial convention was held at Vincennes to deliber-
ate on the interests of the Territory. Gov. Harrison was president of
the convention. A memorial was sent to Congress, together with a letter
of the pi-esident of the convention, declaring the assent of the people
of Indiana Territory to a suspension of the clause of the ordinance of
40 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
1787, forbidding slavery. John Randolph, from the committee of Con-
gress to which this letter and memorial were referred, reported as fol-
lows, March 2, 1803:
" That the rapid population of the State of Ohio sufficiently evinces,
in the opinion of your committee, that the labor of slaves is not necessary
to promote the growth and settlement of colonies in that region. That
this labor, demonstrably the dearest of any, can only be employed to
advantage in the cultivation of products more valuable than any known
to that quarter of the United States; that the committee deem it highly
dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provision wisely calculated to
promote the happiness and prosperity of the northwestern country, and to
give strength and security to that extensive frontier. In the salutary
operation of this sagacious and benevolent restraint, it is believed that
the people of Indiana will, at no very distant day, find ample remuner-
ation for a temporary privation of labor and of immigration."
This report was made at the close of the session, and the subject was
brought up again at the next session. The report, together with the let-
ter of Gov. Harrison, and the memorial of the inhabitants of Indiana,
was referred to a new committee, of which Csesar Rodney, of Delaware,
was chairman. This committee, February 17, 1804, made a report in
favor of the prayer of the memorial, and offered the following resolution:
" Resolved, that the sixth article of the Ordinance of 1787, which pro-
hibited slavery within the said Territory, be suspended in a qualified
manner for ten years, so as to permit the introduction of slaves born in
the United States, from any of the individual States; provided that such
individual State does not permit the importation of slaves from foreign
countries. And provided, further, that the descendants of all such
slaves shall, if males, be free at the age of twenty-five years, and if
females, at the age of twenty-one years."
This resolution failed to pass, and the subject came up again in Feb-
ruary, 1806, when another report was made in Congress in favor of the tem-
porary suspension of the prohibition of slavery, on the ground that the
people of Indiana universally desired such suspension. At the session of
the Legislature of Indiana Territory, in the winter of 1806-07, resolutions
on the subject were adopted and presented to Congress. Another com-
mittee of Congress reported in favor of the suspension of the slavery
clause of the ordinance for ten years, but the measure was again lost.
A committee of the United States Senate reported, November 13, 1807,
that it was not expedient to grant the request of the Indiana Legislature.
To avoid the restriction in the ordinance against slavery, the Terri-
torial Legislature passed an act, September 17, 1807, entitled "An Act
concerning the introduction of negroes and mulattoes into this Territory."
INDIANA TERRITORY. 41
It legalized the introduction into the TeiTitory of persons of color, who
were slaves in the States or Territories, by requiring the owner or posses-
sor to enter into indentures with his slave, the latter stipulating to serve
as an indentured servant for a certain period, at the end of which he was
to become free. A record of the indenture was'required to be made in
the Court of Common Pleas within thirty days after the introduction of
the slave or slaves. Children under fifteen years of age were required to
serve their former owner or possessor, if males, until the age of thirty-
five years; if females, until the age of thirty-two years. Many slave-
holders in Virginia, Kentucky, and other slave States, desiring to man-
umit their slaves, migrated to Indiana and availed themselves of the priv-
ileges of this law. In Indiana, slaves before the expiration of their term
of servitude, were termed under the law "indentured servants."^ This
form of servitude was done away with in Indiana by judical decisions,
and in Illinois by a clause in the State constitution. Had it not been for
the firmness of Congress, in resisting what seemed to be a popular demand,
Indiana might have been a slave State. The demand that slave-holders,
who owned land in Indiana, should be permitted to employ their slaves
in clearing the forests from their own land, seemed just and reasonable
to many persons who were not in favor of the extension of slavery.
THE WAR OF 1812.
At the commencement of the war of 1812, Indiana Territory had a
white population of about 30,000 souls, chiefly in the southern portions
of the Territory. All the settlements in Indiana, as well as those in Ohio,
Kentucky, Michigan and Illinois, were much exposed to Indian depreda-
tions. The Government had hesitated to employ force against the Indians
in Indiana, lest all the tribes of the Northwest should be combined
against the United States in case of a war with England, which was
imminent. Although Gov. Harrison wrote a few months after the battle
of Tippecanoe, " The frontiers never enjoyed more perfect security," yet
as soon as hostilities between the United States and England commenced,
there were gloomy fears of the Indians all along the western frontiers,
which rose to universal consternation when the intelligence was spread
abroad that the whole of our army under Hull, with Detroit and Michigan,
had been surrendered to the combined British forces, commanded by
Brock and Tecumseh, leaving our entire outposts in the Northwest almost
defenseless. Three points needed protection, Fort Wayne and the Mau-
mee, the Wabash, and the Illinois. The troops intended for Fort Wayne
were to be put under Gen. Winchester, a Revolutionary ofiicer residing
in Tennessee, but little known to the frontier men; those for the Wabash
were to be under Harrison, whom the battle of Tippecanoe had given a
42 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
military reputation in the West; those for the Illinois were to be under
Edwards, governor of Illinois Territory. Such were the intentions of
the Government, but the action of the authorities of Kentucky frustrated
them and fortunately led to the elevation of the governor of Indiana to
the post of commander-in-chief of all the forces of the West and North-
west.
Gov. Harrison while at Cincinnati received from Gov. Scott a re-
quest to repair without delay to Frankfort. Arriving at the capital of
Kentucky, he found a large number of influential citizens of Kentucky
assembled, some to witness the inauguration of Gov. Shelby, and others
by invitation of Gov. Scott, the retiring governor. A grand council
had been held upon the course to be adopted for the defense of the
Northwestern frontier, and it had been determined to request Gov.
Harrison to take command of the troops on the march and to appoint
him a major-general in the Kentucky militia. He accepted the com-
mission, took the oath required by the laws of Kentucky, and in a few
hours was on horseback to overtake the troops and assume command.
Gen. Harrison afterward said that he looked upon this as the most hon-
orable appointment he had ever received. A great State, already
distinguished for the talents of her sons, some of whom were Rev-
olutionary officers, placed the governor of another Territory in com-
mand of her troops for a difficult and dangerous expedition. Sep-
tember 17, 1812, Harrison was appointed by the Government com-
mander of the Army of the West,
After the surrender of Detroit and Fort Dearborn on the site of Chi-
cago, Forts Wayne and Harrison, in Indiana, were the only military
stations on the Northwestern frontier in the hands of the Americans.
These were re- enforced. The defeat of Hull and the victories of the
British and Indians in the Northwest awakened throughout Indiana,
Ohio and Kentucky a determination to wipe out the disgrace which had
stained our arms, and to avert the desolation that threatened the
frontier. In August several regiments which had been raised in Ken-
tucky were directed to the aid of Indiana and Illinois. Vincennes was
made the principal rendezvous, and Gen. Hopkins was appointed com-
mander of the troops on the Wabash. It was arranged that Gen.
Hopkins, with between 4,000 and 5,000 mounted riflemen, should
move up the Wabash to Fort Harrison, cross over to the Illinois country,
destroy all the Indian villages on the Wabash, march across the prairies
to the head-waters of the Sangamon and Vermillion Rivers, and then
form a junction with the Illinois rangers under Gov. Edwards, and
sweep over the villages on the Illinois River. September 29, Hop-
kins wrote to the governor of Kentucky: "My present intention is to
INDIANA TERRITORY. 43
attack every Indian settlement on the Wabash, and to destroy their
property, then fall back upon the Illinois, and I trust, in all the next
month, to perform much service. Serious opposition I hardly appre-
hend, although I intend to bo prepared for it." In accordance with his
determination, Hopkins set out from Fort Harrison with his raw militia-
men October 15, and marched some eighty or ninety miles in the
Indian country without obtaining sight of the enemy, when he was com-
pelled to return on account of insubordination among his men and some
of the officers.
Deeply chagrined at the failure of his expedition, Gen. Hopkins did
not return to Kentucky, but remained at Fort Harrison to await the rais-
ing of another and better disciplined army. On the 11th of November he
set out from Fort Harrison with about 1,200 men on an expedition against
the Indians of the tipper Wabash. Lieut. -Col. Butler, with seven boats
loaded with supplies and provisions, at the same time ascended the
river. On the 19th the army arrived at the Prophet's town, and 300
men were sent to surprise the Indian towns on Ponce Passu Creek, but
the villages were found evacuated. On the 20th, a Kickapoo town con-
taining 120 cabins was burned, and all the winter provisions of corn in
the vicinity destroyed. The cold weather of winter was rapidly coming
on, many of the men were, as the General said, "shoeless and shirtless,"
and as the ice in the river began to obstruct the passage, it was deemed
prudent to return. The conduct of this detachment contrasts favorably
with Hopkins' first army.
The military system under which the war of 1812 was carried on
would by no means have answered the purposes of the Government in
the greater war of the Rebellion. The terms of service for which the
men were called out were generally short, not exceeding six mouths.
In many cases the raw militiamen had scarcely learned to drill as soldiers
when their term of service expired, and they were succeeded by fresh,
untrained recruits. The West, and especially the region of the Maumee
and Lake Erie, was the principal theater of the war. In many parts of
the United States there was much opposition to the war, but the pioneers
of Indiana Territory were enthusiastically in favor of the declaration of
war and its vigorous prosecution. Although the population was Dot
large, in every vicissitude of the contest the conduct of the people of
Indiana was patriotic and honorable. They volunteered with alacrity,
and endured the hardships of the campaigns on the swamps of the Mau-
mee and the St. Mary's with patience and cheerfulness.
PEOGEESS OF THE NEW STATE.
Peace was made with Great Britain by the treaty at Ghent, December
24, 1814. The Indians, deprived of their British ally, and having lost
44 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
their great leader, Tecumseli, renounced all hope of arresting the advance
of the white man. Tribe after tribe during the year 1815 entered into
treaties of peace with the United States, and acknowledged themselves
under the protection of the Government. Confidence was restored to the
frontier settlements, and immigration again began to push into the forests
and prairies. The campaigns of the rangers and mounted infantry, who
had traversed the rich and delightful lands along the Wabash, the San-
gamon and the Illinois, served as explorations of new and fertile countries,
and opened the way to thousands of pioneers and the formation of new
settlements. Although large numbers passed westward to the prairies of
Illinois, yet Indiana retained a large share of the rapid immigration.
Prom 1810 to 1820 Indiana increased in population from 24,520 to
147,178, an increase of 500 per cent, a rate of growth at that time unex-
ampled in the growth of American States.
In December, 1815, one year after the close of the war, the Territorial
Legislature petitioned Congress for the privilege of forming a State con-
stitution and admission into the Union. A bill for these purposes was
passed in April, 1816; soon after a convention met at Corydon, and
June 29, adopted the first constitution of Indiana. This constitution
was formed at a time when there was a lull of party violence, and when
the era of political good feeling prevailed. December 11, 1816, the
State was admitted as a sovereign member of the Union. Jonathan Jen-
nings, who had represented the Territory as delegate in Congress, and
had presided over the convention which formed the constitution, was the
first governor. In January, 1821, the Legislature located the seat of
government at Indianapolis, and at the same time appointed commis-
sioners to lay out a town at the site selected, and gave it its present
name, formed by adding the Greek word polls, meaning a city, to the
name of the State.
In the decade from 1820 to 1830 the sales of government lands in the
State were rapid,amounting to more than 3,500,000 acres ; and the population
increased 133 per cent. From 1830 to 1840 the population was doubled.
In 1833 the Wabash & Erie Canal was commenced; in 1834 the State
Bank, with ten branches, was incorporated The result of these under-
takings, and others into which the State entered, was a debt of over
$14,000,000 and a general bankruptcy, which retarded the progress and
development of the State. In 1846 measures were taken to pay the
accumulated interest on the State debt; in 1850 a new constitution was
adopted, and soon the whole economy of the State was changed and pros-
perity returned. The State is the smallest of the Western States, hav-
ing an area of 33,809 square miles, but in population it ranks sixth in the
members of the Union.
THE INDIANS.
45
CHAPTER III.
THE INDIANS.
Location of Indian.Tribes in Indiana-Little Turtle Quoted-Thb
Miami Tribe— Indian Villages— Indian Agriculture— Moral and
Intellectual Character of the Indians-Antoine Gamelin's
Journey— Indians Demand the Ohio for their Boundary.
THE Indian tribes resident within the bounds of Indiana when the
first settlements by the whites were commenced were theMiamis, the
Shawnees, the Delawares, the Wyandq^j^d_Pottawatomies. The Weas,
Eel Eivers, and Piankashaws, also found in the State, were really
branches of the Miamis. In the treaty at Greenville Gen. Wayne rec-
ognized the Weas and Eel Rivers as distinct tribes from the Miamis in
order that they might receive a large share of the money which was stip-
ulated to be paid by the United States. Gen. Wayne thought it just
that the Miamis and thei/allied tribes should receive more of the annui-
ties promised by the Government than they would be entitled to as a
single tribe, because he recognized it as a fact that the country ceded by
the treaty was_really their property. The Indians were so frequently at
war with each other and so often moved from one region to another that
it is difficult to locate them and impossible to fix definite bounds to their
possessions. According to the map of Indiana giving the Indian names
of rivers, towns, etc., prepared by the late Daniel Hough, of Wayne
County, and published in the Indiana geological report of 1882, the
northern portion of the State is assigned to JhePottawattomies; the Wa-
bash and Maumee Valleys to the Miamis; the head-waters of both
branches to White River to the Delawares; the southeastern part of the
State along the Ohio to the Shawnees, and west of them the Wyandots.
Of these tribes the Miamis were at one time by far the most numer-
ous and powerful. Their territory embraced all of Ohio west of the
Scioto, all of Indiana and part of Illinois. They had numerous villages
on the Scioto, the head-waters of the two Miamis, the Maumee and
throughout the whole course of the Wabash as far down as the town of
Brushwood, now Vincennes. Before the arrival of the whites west of
the mountains, it is believed that the Miamis could assemble a larger
number of warriors than any other aboriginal nation of North America.
46 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
The ravages of the small-pox liad largely reduced their numbers before
the commencement of the Revolutionary war.
Little Turtle, the famous Miami chief, during the negotiations which
preceded the treaty of Greenville, spoke with pride and yet with sadness
of the former greatness and dominion of his tribe. His words are pre-
served in the American State Papers:
"I hope you will pay attention to what I now say to you. You have
pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United
States; but I now take the liberty to inform you, that that line cuts off
from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by
my forefathers time immemorial, without molestation or dispute. The
prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion.
It is well known to all my brothers present that my forefather kindled the
first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the head-waters
of the Scioto; from thence to its mouth; from thence down the Ohio to the
mouth of the Wabash; from thence to Chicago on Lake Michigan, At
this place I first saw my elder brothers, the Shawnees. I have now in-
formed you of the boundaries of the Miami nation, where the Great
Spirit placed my forefather a long time ago, and charged him not to sell
or part with his lands, but to preserve them for his posterity. This
charge has been handed down to me. I was surprised to find my other
brothers differed so much from me on this subject; for their conduct
would lead one to suppose that the Great Spirit and their forefathers
had not given them the charge that was given tome; but on the contrary
had directed them to sell their lands to any white man who wore a hat,
as soon as he should ask it of them. "
Little Turtle took pride in the antiquity of his race, as well as in the
extent of territoiV controlled by his ancestors. In 1797 this Miami
chief met Volney in Philadelphia. The French philosopher explained
to the savage orator the theory that the Indian race had descended from
the dark-skinned Tartars, and, by a map, showed the supposed communi-
cation between Asia and America. Little Turtle replied: "Why should
not these Tartars, who resemble us, have descended from the Indians ?"
INDIAN VILLAGES.
Long before the first settlements of the English-speaking whites in
Indiana, the habits of the Indians had been modified by their contact
with the Europeans. The traders had supplied them with firearms,
scalping-knives and iron tomahawks. They had iron pots and brass ket-
tles for cooking and sugar making. They had learned to like strong
drink, and were given to great excesses in eating and drinking. Many
of the inhabitants of some of their more important villages were French.
THE INDIANS. ' 47
The Wea Prairie, or plains, a few miles, below the mouth of Wea
Creek, and not far from the site of Lafayette, contained some of the most
extensive improvements ever made by the Indians within the limits of
the State. On the opposite side of the Wabash was the Indian town
Ouiatenon, or Wah-wee-ah -tenon in the Indian tongue. When it was
destroyed by Col. Wilkinson in 1791, he found there a number of French
books, letters and documents, showing that the place was in close con
flection with Detroit. For richness of soil and beauty of natural scenery,
few places in the West can compare with the Wea Plains.
The town of Tippecanoe, or Kathtippacamunck, on the north side of
the Wabash, at the mouth of the Tippecanoe, was also a celebrated Indi-
an place. In 1791 the village consisted of about 120 houses, eighty of
which were shingle-roofed. The best houses belonged to the French
traders, whose gardens and improvements around the town are described
as delightful, and indeed not a little wonderful. There was a tavern
with cellars, bar and public and private rooms; the whole was marked
by considerable order, and evinced a small degree of civilization. The
town of the Eel River tribe was scattered along the Eel River for about
three miles, on an uneven, scrubby oak barren, intersected alternately
with bogs almost impenetrable, and impervious thickets of plum, hazel
and black-jack. Col. Wilkinson found the head chief at this place guard-
ing a number of prisoners, and families at work digging a root which they
substituted in place of the potato.
INDIAN AGRICULTDEE.
The agriculture of the Indians in Indiana, as well as in most other
parts of North America, was confined chiefly to the growing of corn and
beans, to which potatoes were afterward added. The extent of their
corn-fields on the Wabash and the Maumeewas greater than is generally
supposed. A journal of Gen. Wayne's campaign, kept by George Will,
under the date of August 8, 1794, says: "We have marched four or five
miles in corn-fields down the Auglaise, and there are not less than 1,000
acres of corn around the town." The same journal describes the im-
mense corn-fields, numerous vegetable patches and old apple trees found
along the banks of the Maumee from its mouth to Fort Wayne, and dis-
closes the fact that the army obtained its bread and vegetables for eight
days, while building Fort Defiance, from the surrounding corn and po-
tato fields.
One of the chief objects of the military expedition against the Indian
villages was the destruction of their corn, which would compel the war-
riors to devote more of their time to hunting as a means of subsistence,
and thus prevent marauding expeditions against the white settlements.
48 PEELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
Gen. Harmar, in his unsuccessful expedition in 1790, burned and destroyed
nearly 20,000 bushels of corn in the vicinity of Fort Wayne. Gen.
Charles Scott, in his expedition against the Wabash Indians, destroyed
a considerable amount of corn about the 1st of June, 1791. In August
of the same year, Col. Wilkinson, who marched against the same vil-
lages, found that the Indians had replanted their corn, and it was in high
cultivation, several fields being well plowed, Wilkinson reported that
besides burning a respectable Kickapoo village he had cut down at least
430 acres of corn, chiefly in the milk, and that the Indians, left without
houses, home or provisions, must cease to war, and would find active em-
ployment in subsisting their squaws and children during the coming
winter.
MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL CHAEACTER.
Gen. William H. Harrison speaks of the moral and . intellectual
qualities of the Indians of the Northwest in his discourse before the
Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society on the "Aborigines of the
Ohio Valley," as follows:
"The Wyandots, Delawares, Shawn ees and Miamis were much su-
perior to the other members of the confederacy. The Little Turtle, of
the Miami tribe, was one of this description, as was the Blue Jacket, a
Shawnee chief. I think it probable that Tecumseh possessed more in-
tegrity than any other of the chiefs who attained to much distinction;
but he violated a solemn engagement, which he had freely contracted,
and there are strong suspicions of his having formed a treacherous de-
sign, which an accident only prevented him from accomplishing. Sim-
ilar instances are, however, to be found in the conduct of great men in
the history of almost all civilized nations. But these instances are
more than counterbalanced by the number of individuals of high moral
character which were to be found among the principal and secondary
chiefs of the four tribes above mentioned. This was particularly the
ease with Tarhe, or the Crane, the great sachem of the Wyandots, and
Black Hoof, the chief of the Shawnees. Many instances might be ad-
duced to show the possession on the part of these men of an uncommon
degree of disinterestedness and magnanimity, and strict performance of
their engagements under circumstances which would be considered by
many as justifying evasion.
"By many they are supposed to be stoics, who willingly encounter
deprivations. The very reverse is the fact. If they belong to either of
the classes of philosophers which prevailed in the declining ages of
Greece and Rome, it is to that of the Epicureans. For no Indian will
forego an enjoyment or sufifer an inconvenience if he can avoid it, but
under peculiar circumstances, when, for instance, he is stimulated by
THE INDIANS.
49
Rome strong passion. But even the gratification of this he is ready to
postpone whenever its accomplishment is attended with unlooked-for
danger or unexpected hardships. Hence their military operations were
always feeble, their expeditions few and far between, and much the
greater number abandoned without an "efficient stroke, from whim,
caprice, or an aversion to encounter difficulties." He adds-. "When,
however, evil comes which he cannot avoid, then he will call up all the
spirit of the man, and meet his fate, however hard, like the best Roman
of them all."
antoine'^'gamelin's journey.
While Gov. St. Clair was engaged in organizing the western counties
of the Northwest Territory, in 1790, he made a praisworthy efifort to con-
ciliate the hostile tribes on the Wabash. Antoine Gamelin, an intelli-
gent French merchant of Vincennes, was employed to carry the
messages of the Government to the Indians, and to ascertain their dis-
position and sentiments. Antoine traveled across the State and visited
all the tribes along the Wabash and as far east as the junction of the
St. Joseph and St. Mary's, at the site of Fort Wayne. His journal,
which fortunately has been preserved, gives much information concern-
ing the Indians of Indiana in the earlier period of the history of the
Northwest Territory.
Setting out from Vincennes, April 5, 1790, the first Indian village
he arrived at was called Kickapougoi, inhabited by a tribe then peace-
ably disposed toward the whites. The second village he found was at the
river Vermillion, and inhabited by the Piankeshaws, who looked upon
the Mi amis as their elder brethren, and could not give an answer to the
message until they had consulted that nation. On the lUh of April,
Gamelin arrived at a tribe of the Kickapoos, who also regarded the
Miamis as their elder brethren. On the 18th he arrived at Eel River.
The village of Eel River Indians stood about six miles above the junc-
tion of that stream with the Wabash. The chief of this tribe was
absent, and no answer to the message could be obtained. On the 23d
of April he arrived at the great village of the Miamis, at the site of
Fort Wayne. The chief of the Miamis at this time was called LeGris.
At this place were both French and English traders. While Gamelin
remained five Pottawattomies arrived with two negro men, whom they
sold to the English traders. Blue Jacket, the great warrior chief of the
Shawnees, was at the Miami town. Both LeGris and Blue Jacket were
disposed to insist that the Ohio River should be made the Indian bound-
ary, and the report of Gamelin was unfavorable for the maintenance of
peace.
50 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
INDIANS DEMAND THE OHIO FOK THEIR BOUNDARY.
The Indians of the Wabash and Maumee were hostile to the formation
of the earlier settlements northwest of the Ohio, and made incursions
upon the whites along the Ohio in what is now the State of Ohio, and
often passed into Kentucky on expeditions of plunder and murder.
These Indians were united in claiming that the whites had no rights to
any lands northwest of the Ohio; that the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768
made the Ohio River the boundary, and they refused to regard the
treaties of Fort Mackintosh in 1785, and Fort Harmar in 1789, as bind-
ing, because not ratified by all the tribes.
In 1793 President Washington instructed the commissioners appointed
by him to negotiate a treaty of peace with the Northwestern Indians, to
use every effort to obtain a confirmation of the boundary line established
at Fort Harmar, and to offer in payment $50,000 in hand, and an annuity
of $10,000 forever. The Indians refused the money, claimed that the
treaties already made were void because not sanctioned by all the tribes,
demanded that the Ohio River should be considered the boundary, and
that every white settlement should be removed from the Northwest
Territory. The paper containing these views of the Indians was signed
by the chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawn ees, Miamis, Mingoes,
Pottawattomies, Ottawas, Connoys, Chippewas and Munsees.
The commissioners explained to them that the United States Govern-
ment had sold large tracts of land northwest of the Ohio, and that the
white settlements and improvements were numerous, and had cost much
money and labor, and could not be given up; but the Government was
willing to pay a larger sum in money and goods than had been given at
any one time for Indian lands since the whites first set their feet on this
continent. The Indians gave as their final reply:
"Money is of no value to us, and to most of us is unknown. As no
consideration whatever can induce us to sell the lands on which we get
sustenance for our women and children, we hope we may be allowed to
point out a mode by which your settlers may be easily removed, and
peace thereby obtained.
"We know these settlers are poor, or they never would have ventured
to live in a country which has been in continual trouble since they crossed
the Ohio. Divide, therefore, this large sum of money which you have
offered to us among these people. Give to each, also, a proportion of
what you say you will give to us annually over and above this large sum
of money, and, we are persuaded, they will most readily accept it in lieu
of the land you sold them. If you add, also, the great sums you must
expend in raising and paying armies with a view to force us to yield you
THE INDIANS. 51
our country, you will certainly have more than sufficient for the purpose
of repaying these settlers for all their labor and their improvements.
"We shall be persuaded that you mean to do us justice if you agree
that the Ohio shall remain the boundary line betw^een us. If you will
not consent thereto, our further meeting will be altogether unneces-
sary. "
The ^commissioners on the part of the Government said " That they
had already explicitly declared to them that it was now impossible to
make the Ohio River the line between their lands and the lands of the
United States. Your answer amounts to a declaration that you will
agree to no other boundary than the Ohio. The negotiation is therefore
at an end."
Nothing remained for the Government but a vigorous prosecution of
the war. The Indians were defeated by Gen. Wayne in August, 1794,
and in August, 1795, a treaty of peace was ratified by all the tribes.
The treaty of Greenville was the first one since that of Fort Stanwix,
which was regarded as binding upon the Indian confederacy. It was
observed by them in good faith, and there was no further war between
the red men and the whites until the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
52 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
CHAPTER IV.
PREHISTORIC REMAINS.
Arch^ological Work > IN Southeast Indiana— Purpose of Mounds—
Their Age— Gen. Harrison on the Ancient Fort at the Mouth of
THE Great Miami— Signal Stations— Open-air Work-shops— An-
cient Fire-places— Stone Utensils, Weapons and Ornaments-
Trade OR Traffic Among the Pre-historic Races.
INTERESTING archseological remains are found throughout southeast
Indiana. They are the traces of a people who inhabited the basins
of the Mississippi and the Ohio in the distant past. Their elaborate and
extensive earthworks prove that they were not nomadic tribes, but a
numerous people, dwelling in fixed communities, probably devoted to
agriculture, and having certain fixed laws, customs and religious rites.
Some of these works required an immense amount of labor and consider-
able engineering skill. What race of people built these remarkable
works we shall probably never know, and in the absence of positive
knowledge, there origin is referred to a people called the Mound-Builders.
It cannot be said that any law governing the arrangement of either
the tumuli or fortifications has been discovered. Both appear to be more
numerous along the rivers than elsewhere. It has been thought by some
writers that the archaeology of the Miamis has for its distinguishing
feature a system of strong fortifications along the two rivers, and that
the numerous mounds on the headlands and interior points may have
been signal stations, commanding the whole region and binding the
country together as the seat of one united nation. A more common view
is that the mounds were places of sepulture and memorials raised over
the dead, the largest mounds being erected in honor of distinguished
personages. The notion that they contain the remains of vast heaps of
dead fallen in great battles is wholly unsupported by the facts obtained
from excavations and examinations. But one or two skeletons are usually
iound in these mounds, and where many are found it is probable that
the later Indians, and, in some cases, Europeans, have buried their dead
in them.
The New American Cyclopedia assumes, from facts and circumstances
deemed sufficient to enable us to arrive at approximate conclusions con-
cerning the antiquity of the Mound-Builders' records, that we may infer,
PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS. 53
for most of these monuments in the Mississippi Valley, an age of not less
than two thousand years. "By whom built, whether their authors
migrated to remote lands under the combined attractions of a more fer-
tile soil and more genial clime, or whether they disappeared beneath the
victorious arms of an alien race, or were swept out of existence by some
direful epidemic or, universal famine, are questions probably beyond the
power of human investigations to answer. History is silent concerning
them and their very name is lost to tradition itself."
Extensive pre-historic forts and mounds are found on both sides of
the Great Miami, near its mouth, which have been accurately platted by
Samuel Morrison. Gen. William H. Harrison took a deep interest in
these works. "The work at the mouth of the Great Miami," he wrote,
"was a citadel, more elevated than the Acropolis of Athens, although
easier of access, as it is not like the latter, a solid rock, but on three
sides as nearly perpendicular as could be, composed of earth. A large
space of lower ground was, however, enclosed by walls uniting it with
the Ohio. The foundation of that (being of stone, as well as those of
the citadel) that forms the western defense, is still very visible where
it crosses the Miami, which, at the period of its erection, must have dis-
charged itself into the Ohio much lower down than it now does. I have
never been able to discover the eastern wall of this enclosure, but if its
direction from the citadel to the Ohio was such as it should have been,
to embrace the largest space with the least labor, there would not have
been less than 300 acres enclosed. The same land at this day, under
the best cultivation, will produce from seventy to 100 bushels of corn
per acre. Under such as was then probably bestowed upon it, there
would be much less, but still enough to contribute to the support of a
considerable settlement of people, remarkable beyond all others for ab-
stemiousness in their diet.
Gen. Harrison did not believe the work at the mouth of the Great
Miami and the one at Circleville could have been erected by the same
people if both were intended for military purposes. "The square at
Circleville," he says, "has such a number of gateways as seem intended
to facilitate the entrance of those who would attack it. And both it and
the circle were completely commanded by the mound, rendering it an
easier matter to take than defend it. The engineers, on the contrary,
who directed the execution of the Miami works, appear to have known
the importance of flank defenses. If their bastions are not as perfect,
as to form, as those in use in modern engineering, their position, as well
as that of the long lines of curtains, is precisely as it should be."
Dr. J. W. Baxter, of Vevay, gives the following account of a series
of mounds, or signal stations, occupying prominent points along the
54 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
Ohio River, and so located that each may be seen from the next above
and below. These command nearly the whole bottom. From the sta-
tion below Patriot the observer may look across Gallatin County, Ky.,
and the valley of Eagle Creek to the height of land in Owen County.
Both this mound and one near Rising Sun exhibit traces of fires that
may have been used as telegraphic signals by the Mound-Bailders. The
mounds at the following pl-dces form a complete series, though others
may have been used when the country was timbered: Rising Sun, near
Gunpowder Creek, Ky. ; the Dibble Farm, two miles south of Patriot;
the "North Hill," below Warsaw, Ky. ; the Taylor Farm, below Log
Lick Creek; opposite Carrollton, Ky. ; below Carrollton.
There are a number of mounds in the vicinity of Aurora, and quite a
large mound was within the city limits, but has been almost entirely re-
moved by cutting a street- way through it. Dr. George Sutton, of Au-
rora, has a large and interesting collection of ancient stone implements,
which he collected from this county and from Kentucky.
J. B. Gerard, M. D., in connection with others, opened a mound
near the mouth of Laughery Creek, in Ohio County, which was about
100 feet in diameter and fifteen feet high; excavations were made at
several places, and they found human bones, one whole earthen pot, and
a great many fragments of pottery. Mr. Stratton also found a whole pofc
in this mound, and still another was found by H. C. Miller. Dr. Ge-
rard has noticed from twenty to thirty mounds along the bluffs of
Laughery Creek, and has opened a number of others, but found nothing
of note except ashes, which lay at the base of them all.
Dr. George W. Homsher, of Fairfield, Ind., in a paper on the
"Ancient Remains on Whitewater River," in the Smithsonian Report of
18S2, describes what he terms "open-air woi'kshops " situated in
the valleys along the Whitewater. Their location is indicated by a vast
amount of broken cobble-stones or chert. From the fragments it is easy
to determine the kind of implement which was manufactured, whether
axe, celt, pestle, hammer, arrow or ornament. These workshops, as a
general rule, are located on the second terrace formation along the river
or the larger streams flowing into the river, and in close proximity with
each shop is an excellent spring of water. There is also in close prox-
imity to the workshop a signal mound or station, located on the highest
hill or bluff along the river. One of the most famous of these workshops
is situated about 500 yards northwest of Quakertown, and covers about
two and a half acres. At least half a wagon load of ancient implements
have been gathered here, and yet additional ones are still found. Dr.
Homsher locates about a dozen open-air work-shops along the Whitewater.
The same writer maintains that sigfnal mounds in some instances
PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS. 55
have been converted into burial mounds, probably after their abandon-
ment as signal stations. " In signal mounds," he says, " there is only
one spot, and that in the center, that shows the action of fire, and
when it has served its purpose it is built up in a cone shape and aban-
doned. In case it is converted into a burial mound the fire has been
extinguished, the surface leveled, the dead deposited, and again another
layer of clay or whatever material is used in its construction, is symmet-
rically laid over the dead to the depth of six to eighteen inches.
Over the whole surface a fire once more is started, the object
being to burn the clay or harden it, so that the water will not permeate
it so readily as it does unburnt clay. In doing this there is no fear of
destroying the objects deposited below. Sometimes where a limb has
not been sufficiently covered it has been charred, which accounts for that
part of the subject we oftentimes find in these tumuli that are mutilated
and attributed to cremation."
It is said that a greater number of wild grapes, plums, crab-apples
and onions are found growing near the mounds in southeast Indiana than
at a distance from them.
In the Ohio River terraces are found some antiquarian remains. In
the bottom below the mouth of Laughery Creek, are the remains of
what are called ancient fire-places, which are disclosed from time to time
as the river wears away the bank. R. H. Warder examined one which
" consisted of a layer of boulders thirteen feet from the surface. The
part exposed was three feet across. Pieces of charcoal, soft aud crumb-
ling, were found among and under the boulders, while other pieces,
that had fallen out and dried in the sunshine, were firm. The clay under
the boulders was red as though burnt. No one could examine the section
without being convinced of human agency in the work."
In the river bank opposite Florence, there is a layer of decomposing
mussel shells, thirty- two inches below the surface. The out-crop now
extends forty feet, was noticed as early as 1847, when the bank stood
two or three rods nearer the channel than it now does. Similar
deposits have been observed elsewhere in the river terraces.
Among the most interesting archaeological relics are the utensils,
implements, weapons and personal ornaments of pre-historic times. It
should be borne in mind that, while most writers on American antiquities
make a distinction between the Mound -Builders and the tribes the whites
found in possession of the country, such a line of demarkation cannot
well be drawn with accuracy with respect to the stone, flint and copper
relics. Some of these relics may belong to a pre-historic race of the
distant past, some to the earliest Indian tribes inhabiting the country,
and others to later Indians, whose mechanical arts may have been modi-
56 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
fied by contact and trade with the whites. It is, therefore, impossible
to separate the relics of the Mound-Builders from those of the later
races. We cannot refer the copper implements to any particular epoch,
nor can we determine when the stone age began or ended. Stone imple-
ments have been found associated with the remains of animals long
since extinct, yet these implements are not different from those known to
have been in use among the savage tribes when first seen by the whites.
With respect to the purposes for which they were designed, they may
be divided into utensils for domestic use, implements for handicraft,
weapons and ornaments. With respect to the materials from which they
were fabricated, they are stone, flint, slate, copper, pottery, bone, horn
and shell.
The most common relics are the flint arrow-heads, spear-heads and
daggers. Other flint implements, such as knives and cutting tools,
scrapers and borers have been found. Of stone relics, the most common
are axes and hammers, grooved so that a forked branch or split stick
could be fastened for a handle; balls more or less round, probably used
as hand-hammers; pestles for crushing grain, and many ornaments —
among them flat, perforated tubes of highly polished slate, and various
forms of flat stones, polished and perforated. Stone pipes are found of
various sizes and construction. Specimens of ancient pottery have not
been often found.
Charles Rau, the author of several valuable papers on American
antiquities, has shown that there was an extensive trade or traffic among
the pre-historic races of America. This is rendered evident from the
fact that their manufactured articles consist of materials which must
have been obtained from sources in far distant localities. The materials
of which many relics found in Indiana are composed, can only be found
at a distance of hundreds of miles. The term "flint," used to describe
the material of which various chipped implements are manufactured, is
used to include various kinds of hard and silicious stones, such as horn-
stone, jasper, chalcedony and different kinds of quartz. There have
been found in the United States places where the manufacture of flint
implements was carried on. There was a great demand for arrow-beads
among the primitive tribes, and in places where the proper kind of
material could be found, there were work shops for their manufacture.
An important locality to which the aborigines resorted for quarrying
flint is now called Flint Ridge, and extends through Muskingum and
Licking Counties, Ohio. Dr, Hildreth says of this ancient flint quarry:
" The compact, silicious material of which this ridge is made up
seems to have attracted the notice of the aborigines, who have manufac-
tured it largely into arrow ar^ spear heads, if we may be allowed to
PHYSICAL FEATURES. 57
judge from the numerous circular excavations, which have been made in
mining the rock, and the piles of chipped quartz lying on the surface.
How extensively it has been worked for these purposes may be imagined
from the countless number of the pits, experience having taught them
that the rock recently dug from the earth could be split with more free-
dom than that which had lain exposed to the weather. These excava-
tions are found the whole length of the outcrop, but more abundantly
at 'Flint JElidge,' where it is most compact and diversified with rich
colors."
The greenish, striped slate, of which variously shaped tablets are
made, is believed to occur in no parts of the Union except the Atlantic
coast district, and to have been transported, either in a rough or worked
condition, from that region to the different parts of the Mississippi
Valley in which the relics are found. The copper used by the aboriginal
tribes was probably obtained chiefly from the northern part of Michigan.
CHAPTER V.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
Similarity of the Surface Features of Dearborn, Ohio and Switzer-
land Counties— Topography— Changes made along the Ohio-
Table OF Elevations— Stratified Rooks— Minerals— Drift— Gold-
Bearing Drift— Land-Slips— Sink-Holes— Soils.
THE three counties of Dearborn, Ohio and Switzerland, in southeast
Indiana, all bordering on the majestic Ohio, present such simi-
larities in their surface as to form a district whose physical features are
best described together. These three counties are composed of the same
geological formation, and indicate substantially the same geological his-
tory. A description of the topography and geology of one would, in its
general statements, apply to the rest. Robert H. Warder grouped the
three counties together in his report on the geology of this region, pub-
lished in 1872. Free use will be made in this chapter of Warder's.
Report, together with the information contained in the writings of Prof.
Edward Orton, of Ohio. In treating of the physical features of this dis-
trict, only the leading points can be noticed. The attempt will be made
to discard the technical terms of science, and to treat the subject in such
a manner that it can be understood by any reader of average intelligence,
although wholly unacquainted with geological science.
The district extends forty-three miles from north to south, and twen-
ty-one and one-half miles from east to west.
58 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The district has a diversified topography, and contains a great variety
of soil. Although each of the counties has an extensive front on the
Ohio, and much of the land of the district consists of Ohio River hills,
yet there are extensive regions of upland flats which, in a state of nature,
retained the water most of the year. In each of the counties are to be
found bottom lands, river terraces, steep hill -sides, broken uplands and
upland flats. The district contains some of the richest and some of the
poorest land in the State. Picturesque scenery is to be found in the
district along the Ohio, and the streams which fall into it, and on the
uplands pleasant vistas of four or five miles may be enjoyed from favored
spots. The hills along the Ohio are said, perhaps with truth, to be
unsurpassed in beauty on the globe. The roads leading from the river
to the higher lands pass -along the beds of streams between hills
which are often beautifully rounded, while the ridges slope gracefully to
the bottoms.
The Ohio River extends for more than fifty miles along the east and
south of the district. The big bottoms of the Great Miami are on the
eastern side of Dearborn, and the Whitewater flows through the north-
east part of that county. Tanner's Creek empties into the Ohio below
Lawrenceburgh. North and South Hogan Creeks unite at Aurora, and
flow into the Ohio. The winding Laughery Creek flows south in Ripley
County,then turning northeastward, forms the boundary between Dearborn
and Ohio Counties. The flood of the Ohio in 1847 backed water up this
stream within three or four miles of the Ripley County line. The
streams of Switzerland County are all comparatively small, the principal
are Grant's, Bryant's, Log Lick and Indian Creeks. Some of the streams
have considerable fall, and were early utililized for water-power, but as
the forests have been cleared away, the water supply has become less
constant, and many mills have been abandoned.
The Ohio, with its mighty flood, causes many changes along its
banks, in one place washing away large tracts, in another extending the
land into the river channel. On this subject Warder's Report says:
"A few examples of these changes will be given: At Rising Sun it is
estimated that no less than 300 feet of the bank has been washed away
within twenty-five years. A row of houses has disappeared which once
stood above Main Street, with road and play-ground beyond. The well
referred to, at Hickman's Landing, was dug about 100 feet from the
bank, but it has been carried away and much of the bottom behind it.
At Florence there was but little wear twenty-five years ago, the bank
being protected by trees. About eighty feet of the bank have been lost
at the Main street within a few years, and 200 feet a short distance
PHYSICAL FEATURES. 59
below. Repeated changes of the river road have been required in maoy
places.
The process of land making is also very common, but I judge that
the amount of material deposited will by no means equal the amount
removed. There was formerly a low island above Vevay, close to the
Indiana shore. Steamboats ascending the river frequently passed through
the chute twenty years ago. The steamer Kentucky went through as
late as 1859. A few tow-heads were gradually formed about the upper
end. The current was thus arrested and the tine material held in sus-
pension was deposited. When this accumulation had so filled the chute
that the island was connected with the main land at low water it became
part of Indiana; another corn-field has been added to the agricultural
wealth of the State. A stump, which was at the water's edge in 1850,
to which the fisherman fastened his net, is now several rods from the
bank. Land is still forming among the trees beyond and below the
island. Similar deposits are generally forming wherever a growth of
willows or other trees is secured sufficient to diminish the current in time
of overflows. Sometimes, however, the exposed roots of trees indicate
that they are not a certain preventive of erosion. The current may be even
wearing the bottom at one point while depositing silt immediately beyond."
A table of elevations has been prepared from various sources, and is
here given. The figures give the elevation above the ocean:
Feet.
Lawrenceburgh 500
Guilford (C, I., St. L. & C. R. R) 520
Harman's (C, I., St. L. & C. R. R.) 759
Weisberg (C, I., St. L. & C. R. R.) 941
Sunman's(C., I., St. L. & C. R. R.) 1,037
Summit, near Milan (O. & M. R. R.) 1,000
Moorefleld (turnpike level) 885
Quercus Grove (turnpike level) 870
Dillsborough 785
"Seminary Hill," near Vevay 700
Ridge, south of Guilford*(Aueroid barometer) 875
High points, southwest part of Switzerland County (Aneroid
barometer) 875
General level of high ground in the northwest part of
Switzerland County 950
High point, near schoolhouse, one mile south of East Enter-
prise (turnpike level) 910
STRATIFIED ROCKS AND MINERALS.
'. "' The stratified rocks of the district belong to the series formerly
known as the Blue Limestone, and sometimes called the Hudson River
Group. The modern name for the rock is the Cincinnati Group. These
rocks belong geologically to the Hudson River Period, the Lower Silu-
rian Age and the Paleozoic Era. They are found in the southeast part of
60 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
Indiana, the southwest part of Ohio, and in a considerable area of Ken-
tucky. They ax-e exposed in bluffs along the Ohio from Maysville, Ky.,
to the mouth of Fourteen Mile Creek in Clark County, Ind. The strata
of the Cincinnati Gi'oup foi'm the floor of nearly the whole of Dearborn,
Ohio and Switzerland Counties. The blueish tinge of the rocks is due
to the presence of an oxide of iron. Exposure often changes the color
to a light gray or drab. The rocks of this formation abound in well-
preserved fossils, often of great beauty. The fossiliferous remains occur
in such numbers and are so well preserved, that the attention of the
most careless observer is directed to them in the stones by the wayside
and in the village pavements. There are a few exposures of Upper
Silurian rocks in the district, but their boundaries have not yet been
accurately mapped.
The limestone seldom occurs in layers of more than eight inches.
There is an apparent layer of sixteen inches in the Lawrenceburg quarry,
but it is separated into two or three by partings of clay. Neither does
the marl occur in uninterrupted beds of any great thickness. Near Ris-
ing Sun there is an exposure of twenty feet, or more, of blue clay, with
no limestone more than an inch or two thick; but even here, there is a
very thin layer of solid rock at every foot or few inches. The blue lime-
stone is broken by vertical joints at intervals of a few feet or less. The
largest piece observed was at Vevay, about 10x6 feet. The pieces often
approximate to the parallelogram in shape; sometimes this feature is
very striking, where the layer is divided into bits by two sets of nearly
parallel joints, not running at right angles. A weathered stone often
exhibits very narrow parallel grooves on the upper surface. By breaking
the specimen they are seen to extend through one fourth, more or less,
of its thickness.
At the quarries near St. Leon, Dearborn County, in the upper part of
the series, the rock is compact and bears hammer dressing much better
than the average rock of this formation. On exposure it becomes gray.
This change begins at the surface, and gradually reaches the center.
While this is in progress, the two colors are not blended, but the gray
and the' blue remain very distinct.
Among the lowest Lower Silurian rocks exposed are layers of compact
stone of comparatively dark color and abounding in fossils. This rock
crops out in Millersburg, one mile from Florence, and at other points on
the river. The stone is quarried nearly opposite Rising Sun, at low
water, and used for tombstones under the name of "Kentucky marble."
It receives a beautiful polish, when the fossils are very distinct; some
dull spots probably indicate the position of concretions through the rock.
Small cavities lined with calc spar sometimes occur and small crystals of
iron pyrites are frequent. Slabs are quarried as large as desired.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
61
Blue limestone for building purposes is everywhere abundant. Very
little of it will bear dressing. Few quarries are extensively worked, as
this stone may be picked up from the beds of creeks.
Lime for home consumption is burned from the blue limestone.
Hydraulic cement is made from the quarry near Bennington.
Gravel suitable for roads, is found at many places in the river ter-
races, including those of the Whitewater and Miami. Deposits are not
often accessible on the high lands.
Molding sand for heavy work has been procured from the railroad
cut near Newton.
The manufacture of salt was carried on in early times when trans-
portation was difficult; but this industry was long ago abandoned, as
there are no salt wells or springs strong enough to make it profitable.
There was a Government salt reservation on Section 25, Township 6,
Range 1 west. Salt is said to have been made by the Indians on Grant's
Creek at the Mineral Springs.
Good bog iron ore occurs in many parts of the broken upland, but has
not been seen elsewhere. In each spot it seems confined to a few rods or
a few acres near the hilltop, but several outcrops occur near one locality,
as near Quercus Grove. There are ledges from six to fourteen inches
thick, but the stratum is seldom continuous, being divided into pieces a
yard or less in diameter. Drift pebbles occur through the mass in many
cases. The ore is most frequently noticed at the surface, or where struck
by the plow, but it has been seen eight or nine feet deep.
DRIFT.
There is more or less drift on nearly all the high land. Northwest of
Manchester, at Fairview, and in other parts of the upland flats, the lime-
stone is overlaid with unstratitied blue clay, containing pebbles and
boulders, many of which bear glacial scratches. The impervious nature
of this clay determines, to a great extent, the agricultural character of
the "crawfish flats." Much of the drift has been removed by erosion
from the broken upland, but, even on the hills, some pebbles are found
(occasionally scratched) which must be referred to this source. Boulders
are common in each of the counties, some of them three or four feet in
diameter.
An interesting specimen, found near Tanner's Creek below Weisburg,
was a piece of native copper, weighing twenty-six ounces, which must
have been brought by natural agencies from the Lake Superior region.
An unusual amount of pebbly drift occurs on the hills near Florence,
and at the base is a mass of clay mingled with pebbles, on which no
scratches are observed.
At Hartford there is a remarkable accumulation of drift, chiefly rest-
62 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
ing against the north face of the native hill. Between the bottoms of
Laughery Creek and the hilltop, the deposit is about 200 feet high, with
a beautiful grassy surface, divided by narrow dells. An outcrop through
the soil shows nothing but cemented gravel. Time has been wasted here
in searching for lead. Sand, with some cemented layers, was found near
the top. At the base are slabs of blue and gray limestone, mingled with
clay, a variety of pebbles, and flattened ferruginous concretions, which
consist of concentric layers or are hollow. A trilobite (Calymene), with the
form and markings uninjured, was here associated with scratched pebbles.
In one of the prospect holes there is about twelve feet of quicksand in a
basin of a native rock. Large crystalline boulders abound south and
southwest of Hartford, occupying a space one mile east and west by one-
fourth mile north and south, ia a valley that opens toward Laughery
Creek. Two or three small streams flow northward across this valley to
the creek.
GOLD BEARING DRIFT.
In the drift are deposits composed of crystalline rocks with large
quartz and granite boulders, magnetic iron ore in the form of black sand,
and gold dust and nuggets. George Sutton, M. D., of Aurora, in a
paper on the " Gold Bearing Drift of Indiana" read before the American
Association for the Advancement oE Science at Cincinnati, August,
1881, said :
"Along the valley of Laughery Creek, a stream which enters the
Ohio River a few miles below the mouth of the Miami, may be seen
deposits of this auriferous drift. They are not stratified like the terrace
formations seen along our rivers, but lie in irregular accumulations
along the valley. At the bottom of the small streams that have cut
across this drift are seen deposits of black sand already alluded to, which
principally consist of magnetic iron ore. It is in this sand that gold is
found. Seven miles from the mouth of Laughery may be seen a deposit
of this drift about a mile and a half in length, nearly half a mile in
width, and about one hundred feet in thickness. *****
Some portions of the Laughery drift are so rich in gold that it is
seen with the unaided eye, and almost pays a fair remuneration washing
for it. My attention was directed a few weeks since, by the owner of the
farm on which this drift is found, to a small excavation which had been
made in washing for gold. It was by measurement six feet long, five feet
broad and about two feet deep. He informed me that from this place
$8 worth of gold had been obtained, and that a man had washed from
the drift on his farm gold to the value of $16.50. The gold is found in
the form of dust, flattened scales, and small nuggets. Only that which
could be seen with the unaided eye was saved."
PHYSICAL FEATURES. 63
Dr. Sutton traced the gold-bearing drift in a line across the State of
Indiana northwestward to Illinois and argued for the existence of rich
veins of gold north of the great lakes.
LAND- SLIPS AND SINK-HOLES.
A common phenomenon is the land-slip, especially on the steep river
hills. The clay, being wet with spring rains, becomes slippery and too
soft to support the weight above. Part of the hillside slips down by its
own weight, forming a bench where the material accumulates. A greater
depth of soil is retained on the benches than on the steeper part of the
slope.
Another interesting phenomenon is the formation of sink-holes.
These are most abundant in the soils overlying the Upper Silurian rocks,
or the upper part of the Lower Silui'ian, where the water, sinking through
the soil, wears away a channel by dissolving the rock, and the soil, no
longer supported, falls in. A very common form is that of an inverted
hollow cone. This may increase if the water is allowed to wash down
more and more of the soil to the channel below, but if it becomes sodded
over (especially when filled with brush or rubbish), the wash may be ar-
rested, and the sink be converted into a pond, and gradually tilled up.
When the surface soil is matted together by the roots of grass, it will
keep its place long after the cavity has begun to form, until finally some
horse puts his hoof upon the fragile roofing, and a cavity is revealed
large enough to hide the whole animal. The next year the hole may be
filled.
A series of sink-holes sometimes points out the vein of water, when a
well is to be sunk; or an opening in a layer of rock, when a quarry is to
be opened.
SOILS.
The typical soil of the upland flats is derived from true drift, with
which it is underlaid. It consists chiefly of stiff, cold, wet clay, of ashen
color. Water stands on the surface after rain. The soil is shallow, for
it is too stiff and close to let the roots and moisture penetrate readily.
The subsoil, when wet, is very sticky; it adheres to the spade like putty.
When dry, it is very hard; the spade will not penetrate it. The ground
near the watersheds is called crawfish land, from the abundance of these
animals. Their holes retain water all summer. Where there is more
natural drainage this is not the case. Toward the broken land, in all
directions, the soil is more yellow and mellow, and appears to have a
larger proportion of sand.
On the broken upland the amount of drift varies according to the
thickness of the original deposit, and the amount lost by erosion. The
limestone and marl add to the fertility where they are exposed to the air
64 PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.
or streams. In some parts the rock crops out at the surface, in others
there are many drift pebbles, the clay having been removed; in still oth-
ers, the digging of wells shows the true, unmodified drift. These soils
are yellow, except where a large amount of organic matter has accumulat-
ed, as in the native forest, or by the use of green manure. Although
the vegetable mold is generally more abundant on the hillsides than
here, yet the soil has the advantage of retaining the moisture better than
that which is darker and more mellow.
The still more broken land, including the hillsides, contains in the
blue limestone formation all the mineral ingredients essential to perpet-
ual fertility, but these must be modified by disintegration and the addi-
tion of organic matter, before they can be appropriated by the plant.
Some steep, barren hillsides are practically worthless. Having been
cleared, or bearing but little timber, they do not support even a good
crop of weeds. The soil is washed ofif as fast as it is formed. In more
favored localities, a thin, white clay soil accumulates sufficient to produce
a scanty crop of wheat. In still others the forest leaves are mingled
with the soil, or a crop of clover has been plowed in, furnishing the or-
ganic matter that is needed to make the rich, "black hillsides." Note
the fertile slopes near Rising Sun, where the hills are covered with a
garland of trees. A farm on Grant's Creek produced satisfactory crops
of corn and wheat for fifty years, when it was thought necessary to re-
store the land simply by raising hay. This is not an exceptional in-
stance, for the hillside farmers claim that a proper rotation is alone nec-
essary to maintain the fertility unimpaired.
The terrace soils remain to be described. They are derived entirely
from modified drift and material washed from the several formations of
the Ohio Valley. The ingredients are so varied that no essential mineral
element is wanting. The creek deposits derived from the blue limestone
resemble the hillside soil, in being stiff, clayey and whitish wherever
the organic matter 'is exhausted, but with this ingredient the creek soil
is very similar to the rich, black hillsides.
The gravel of the river terraces would easily admit the air and rain,
and quickly yield to these decomposing agencies, producing good land.
Some terraces contain gravel only a foot below the surface, in others the
soil is deep. There may be an understratum of coarse or fine gravel, or
even of fine clay. Some river terraces are very sandy, as the low bottom
above Rising Sun. Some are stiff and clayey, as a narrow strip on the
north side of the Sand Run ; this may be attributed to material washed
from the hill sides. The recent river deposits are always fertile, and
where a frequent addition of river mud can be secured, no apprehension
is entertained that the land will be exhausted.
HISTORY OF
DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES
CHAPTER I.
LOCHRY'S DISASTROUS DEFEAT.
George Rogers Clark Proposes an Expedition Against the North-
west Indians— Col. Lochry's Force in Aid of That Expedition—
His March to Wheeling— Misfortunes of His Men— Want of Am-
munition and Provisions— Slow Voyage down the Ohio— Landing
ON the Indiana Shore — Surprise — Defeat— Massacre of the
Colonel and Other Prisoners— LiUut. Anderson's Journal— The
Proper Orthography of the Name of the Commander— List of the
Killed AND Wounded.
THE surprise and defeat of Archibald Lochry and the massacre of
his men is the first conflict on record between the Indians and the
whites on the soil of Indiana. It took place in the last year of the Rev-
olutionary war and was really one of the battles of the Revolution, as the
Indians engaged in it were allies of the British. The winding stream
which forms the boundary between Dearborn and Ohio Counties, at the
mouth of which the bloody battle was fought, bears the name of the un-
fortunate colonel who there lost his life. It is the purpose of this chap-
ter to give all the facts now known concerning Col. Lochry's expedition
and its disastrous termination.
We have accounts of the expedition by two men who participated in
it — Capt. Robert Orr and Lieut. Isaac Anderson. Capt. Orr, whose
account is published in Western Annals, was wounded by having his arm
broken in the engagement ; he was carried off a prisoner to Sandusky,
where he remained several months; at length, finding that they could^not
cure his wound, the Indians took him to the hospital at Detroit, whence
he was transferred to Montreal in the winter, and exchanged with other
prisoners at the end of the war ; afterward he was appointed a judge of
Armstrong County, Penn., which position he held at his death, in 1833,
66 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
in his eighty- ninth year. Lieut. Anderson's account is published in Mc-
Bride's Pioneer Biographies of Butler County, Ohio. The date of the
engagement, as given by Gapt. Orr, is August 25, 1781, by Lieut. Ander-
son, Aucrust 24. The latter is probably the correct date, as Anderson kept
a journal during the expedition.
Early in the summer of 1781, Col. Ai'chibald Lochry, who was
county lieutenant of Westmoreland County, Penn,, was requested by
Col. George Rogers Clark to raise a military force and join him in a
contemplated military movement against the Indian tribes of the North-
west, Capt. Orr, by his own exertions, raised a company of volunteer
riflemen. Capts. Stokely and Shannon commanded each a company of
rangers, and Capt. Campbell a company of horse. The party amounted
to 107 men. Col. Lochry was the only field oflficer in command. It
was Col.Clark's original intention to rendezvous at the mouth of the Great
Miami, and to proceed up that river with his expedition, but he subse-
quently changed his plan and ordered Col. Lochry to follow him to the
falls of the Ohio.
The force was rendezvoused at Carnahan's block-house, eleven miles
west of Hannastown, July 24, and on the next day they set out for
Fort Henry (Wheeling) by way of Pittsburgh, where it was arranged that
they should join the army under Clark. On arriving there it was found
that Clark had gone twelve miles down the river, leaving for them some
provisions and a traveling boat, with directions to follow him. After
preparing some temporary boats for the transportation of the men and
horses, which occupied ten days, they proceeded to join Clark. Arriving
at the place where he had halted, they found he had gone down the river
the day before, leaving Maj. Creacroft with a few men and a boat for
transportation of the horses, but without either provisions or ammuni-
tion, of which they had an inadequate supply. Clark, had, however,
promised to await their arrival at the mouth of the Kanawha River, but
on reaching that point, they found that he had been obliged, in order to
prevent desertion among his men, to proceed down the river, leaving
only a letter fixed to a pole directing them to follow.
Their provisions and forage were nearly exhausted; there was no
source of supply, but the stores conveyed by Clark; the river was low and
they were unacquainted with the channel, and could not therefore hope
to overtake him. Under these embarrassing circumstances Col. Lochry
dispatched Capt. Shannon with four men in a small boat with the hope
of overtaking the main army and securing supplies, leaving Capt. Shan-
non's company under the command of Lieut. Isaac Anderson. Before
Capt. Shannon and his men had proceeded far they were taken prisoners
by the Indians, and with them was taken a letter to Clark, detailing the
LOCHRY'S DISASTROUS DEFEAT. 67
situation of Lochry's party. About the same time Col. Lochry arrested
a party of nineteen deserters from Clark's army, whom he afterward
released, and they immediately joined the Indians.
The savages had been apprised of the expedition, but had previously
supposed that Clark and Lochry were traveling together, and through
fear of the cannon which Clark carried refrained from making an attack.
Apprised now by the capture of Shannon and his men and by the reports
of the deserters, of the weakness of Lochry's party, they collected in
force below the mouth of the Great Miami with the determination to
destroy them. They placed these prisoners in a conspicuous position on
the north shore of the Ohio, near, it was said, the head of an island, and
promised to spare their lives on condition that they would hail their
companions as they passed and induce them to surrender. This island is
about three miles below the mouth of the creek named after the Com-
mander.
Col. Lochry and his men made slow progress in descending the Ohio,
and despairing of overtaking Clark's army, they landed, August 24,
about 10 o'clock in the morning, at a very attractive spot on the north
side of the Ohio at the mouth of a creek, about ten miles below the
mouth of the Great Miami. Here they removed their horses ashore and
turned them loose to graze. One of the party had killed a buffalo, and
all, except a few set to guard the horses, were engaged around the fires
which they had kindled in preparing a meal from it. Suddenly thev
were assailed by a volley of rifle balls from an overhanging bluff, covered
with large trees, on which the Indians immediately appeared in great
force. The men thus surprised, seized their arms and defended them-
selves as long as their ammunition lasted, and then attempted to escape by
means of their boats. But the boats were unwieldy, the water was low,
and the force too much weakened to make them available, and the whole
party, unable to escape or defend themselves, were compelled to surrender.
Immediately the Indians [fell upon and massacred Col. Lochry and
several other prisoners, but were restrained by the arrival of the chief
who commanded them, the celebrated Brant, who afterward apologized
for the massacre. He did not approve, he declared, of such conduct,
but it was impossible entirely to control his Indians. The murder of the
prisoners was perpetrated in revenge for the massacre of the Indian
prisoners taken by Broadhead's army on the Muskingum a few months
before. The Indians engaged numbered 300 or more, and consisted
of various tribes, among whom the prisoners and plunder were divided
in proportion to the number of warriors of each tribe engaged.
The next day they set out on their return to the Delaware towns. There
they were met by a party of British and Indians, commanded by Col.
68 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Caldwell and accompanied by the two Girty's andMcKee, who professed
to be on their way to the falls to attack George Rogers Clark. They re-
mained there two days. Brant, with the greater part of the Indians, re-
turned with Caldwell toward the Ohio. A few only remained to take
charge of the prisoners and spoils. These they separated and took to
the towns to which they were assigned. The prisoners remained in cap-
tivity until the next year,]which brought the Revolutionary war to a close.
More than one-half of the number who left Pennsylvania under Col.
Lochry never returned.
The foregoing*account is substantially that given by Capt. Orr. Some
doubt has been expressed whether Brant was the leader of the Indians at
the time referred to, there being no other evidence that he was then in
the West. James McBride, in his sketch of Isaac Anderson, says that the
Indians who were waiting opposite the island below to intercept the party,
were informed of the landing of the whites by runners. According both
to McBride and Anderson there were two attacking parties of Indians,
one in the woods and the other in canoes on the river.
Lieut. Isaac Anderson kept a daily journal from the time he set out
on the expedition until his return, which was published in McBride's
Pioneer Biographies. Although the events are briefly recorded, it em-
bodies, probably, the most authentic account of the expedition in exist-
ence. We insert without abridgment the first part of the journal cover-
ing the month of August, preserving the original spelling of proper
names.
JOURNAL.
"August 1st, 1781. — We met at Colonel Carnahan's in order to form a
body of men to join General Clark on the expedition against the In-
dians.
"Aug. 2d. — Rendezvoused at said place.
"Aug. 3d. — Marched under command of Colonel Lochry to Maracle's
mill, about 83 in number.
"Aug. 4th. — Crossed Youghagani a river.
"Aug. 5th. — Marched to Devor's ferry.
"Aug. 6th. — To Raccoon settlement.
"Aug. 7th. — To Captain Mason's.
"Aug. 8th. — To Wheeling Fort, and found Clark was started down the
river about twelve hours.
"Aug. 9th. — Col. Lochry sent a quartermaster and officer of the horse
after him, which overtook him at Middle Island and returned; then
started all our foot troops on seven boats and our horses by land to
Grave Creek.
"Aug. 13th. — Moved down to Fishing Creek; we took up Lieut. Baker
LOCHRY'S DISASTROUS DEFEAT. 71
and 16 men, deserting from Gen. Clark, and went that day to middle of
Long Reach, where we stayed that night.
"Aug. 15th. — To the Three Islands, where we found Major Creacroft
waiting on us with a horse-boat. He, with his guard, six men, started
that night after Gen. Clark.
"Aug. 16th. — Colonel Lochry detailed Capt. Shannon with 7 men and
letter after Gen. Clark, and we moved that day to the Little Connaway
(Kanawha) with all our horses on board the boats.
"Aug. 17th. — Two men went out to hunt who never returned to us.
We moved that day to Buffalo Island.
"Aug. 18th.— To Cattish Island.
"Aug. 19th.— To Bare Banks.
"Aug. 20th. — We met with two of Shannon's men, who told us they
had put to shore to cook, below the mouth of the Siotha (Scioto) where
Shannon sent them and a sergeant out to hunt. When they got about
half a mile in the woods they heard a number of guns fire which they
supposed to be Indians firing on the rest of the party, and they immedi-
ately took up the river to meet us; but, unfortunately, the sergeant's
knife dropped on the ground and it ran directly through his foot and he
died of the wound in a few minutes. We sailed all night.
"Aug. 21st. — We moved to the Two Islands.
"Aug. 22d. — To the Sassafras Bottom.
"Aug. 23d.— Went all day and all night.
"Aug. 24th. — Col. Lochry ordered the boats to land on the Indian
shore, about 10 miles below the mouth of the great Meyamee (Miami)
river to cook provisions and cut grass for the horses, when we were fired
on by a party of Indians from the bank. We took to our boats, expect-
ing to cross the river, and was fired on by another party in a number of
canoes, and soon we became a prey to them. They killed the Col. and a
number more after they were prisoners. The number of our killed was
about forty. They marched us that night about eight miles up the river
and encamped.
"Aug. 25th. — We marched eight miles up the Meyamee river and en-
camped.
"Aug. 26th. — Lay in camp.
"Aug. 27th. — The party that took us was joined by one hundred white
men under the command of Capt. Thompson and three hundred Indians
under the command of Capt. McKee.
"Aug. 28th.— The whole of the Indians and whites went down against
the settlements of Kentucky, excepting a sergeant and eighteen men,
which were left to take care of sixteen prisoners and stores that were
left there. We lay there until the fifteenth of Sept.
72 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
"Sept. 15th, 1781. — We started toward the Shawna towns on our way
to Detroit."
To brietly narrate the remainder of the journal: Lieut. Anderson
arrived at Detroit, October 11, and was confined in the citadel; was
taken in a sloop to Niagara Fort; thence to Montreal, where he scaled
the pickets, and made his way to his home in Pennsylvania, where he
arrived in July, 1782.
Eemembering the beautiful and fertile bottom of the Miami River,
which he had traversed when a captive, in after years he resolved to
possess a portion of that fertile soil. Accordingly he purchased a sec-
tion of land on the west bank of the Great Miami, near the mouth of
Indian Creek, in Butler County, Ohio, and in 1812 removed thereon
with his family, and there resided until his death in 1839, in the eighty-
second year of his age.
The fate of Col. Lochry and his men was not known to their relatives
and friends for several months after their defeat. In a letter from Gen.
"William Irvine to Gen. Washington, dated Fort Pitt, December 29,
1781, an account of the disaster is communicated, and the writer adds:
" These misfortunes throw the people of this country into the greatest
consternation and almost despair, particularly Westmoreland County,
Lochry' s party being all the best men of their frontier." Lochry 's mis-
fortunes compelled Col. Clark to abandon his expedition.
In Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio is the following account by
Col. John Johnson, of one of the prisoners, who was living with the
Indians in Logan County, Ohio, at the time of the first settlement of
that county: " James McPherson, or Squa-la-kake, 'the red-faced man,'
was a native of Carlisle, Cumberland Co., Penn. He was taken prisoner
by the Indians on the Ohio, at or near the mouth of the Big Miami, in
Loughry's defeat; was many years engaged in the British Indian depart-
ment under Elliott and McKee; married a fellow-prisoner; came into
our service after Wayne's treaty of 1795, and continued in charge of the
Shawnese and Senecas of Lewistown until his removal from office in
1830, since which he died."
Some of the accounts of this disaster, which have found their way
into valuable historical works, are inaccurate. Some of them say the
landing was on the Kentucky side. According to the account in Col-
lin's History of Kentucky, one of the boats was taken to the Kentucky
side, and Capt. William Campbell's men began cooking buifalo meat.
The men were assailed from the overhanging Kentucky bank, and as soon
as the boats began to move another large body of Indians on the Indiana
side rushed out on the sand bank.
While there is no doubt that the defeat took place on the Indiana
LOCHRY'S DISASTROUS DEFEAT. 73
side, it is not certainly known whether it was in Dearborn or Ohio
County. None of those who participated in the expedition and wrote
accounts of the disaster, which have been preserved, state whether the
landing was above or below the mouth of the creek, and on the question
whether it was probably above or below the descendants of the old pio-
neers of this locality now" differ in opinion. It is safe to say that the
most intelligent officers of the expedition, after witnessing the terrible
butchery of their companions and then marched off prisoners with the
Indians, would not be clear in their recollection on this point, and per-
haps would not have been able to settle the question even by a visit to
the scene of the disaster.
The name of this unfortunate commander has been variously written
Lochry, Lochrey, Loughry, Loughrey and Laughery. In Dillon's
History of Indiana it is written Loughry; in Collin's History of Ken-
tucky, Loughrey, although in the Annals of Kentucky, prefixed to the
latter work, we have Lochry and Lochi-y's Creek. The people of Dear-
born County seem to have early settled upon Laughery as the correct spell-
ing of the name of the creek which is^now the boundary of their county,
and in McBride's biography of Isaac Anderson, as published by Kobert
Clarke & Co., the same orthography is followed, although Anderson
himself wrote the name Lochry. The writer of this chapter has satis-
fied himself, after full investigation, that Lochry is the correct way of
spelling the name of the Colonel, as will be seen in his published letters
in the Pennsylvania Archives of the period of 1781. Upon this point
the writer addressed a note to Lyman C. Draper, the historian, who has
in preparation a full history of the campaigns of Gen. George Rogers
Clark. He says that Lochry is the correct spelling, and that he has
among the papers of Gen. Clark a letter of Lochry's, a mere formal,
brief, business letter, and Lochry is the way he signed his name. It is
to be earnestly hoped that the people of Dearborn and Ohio Counties
may yet be induced to write Lochry's Creek and Lochry's Island.
Return of the men killed and taken August 24, 1781, upon the Ohio
River under the command of Col. Lochry.
Killed: Col. Lochry, Capt. Campbell, Ensigns Ralph, Maxwell and
Cahel.
Prisoners: Maj. Creacroft, Adjt. Guthree, Quartermaster Wallace,
Capts. Thomas Stokely, Samuel Shannon and Robert Orr; Lieuts.
Isaac Anderson, Joseph Robinson, Samuel Craig, John Scott, Milr
Baker; Ensign Hunter.
Privates killed and taken prisoners in Capt. Stokely's company:
Killed: Hugh Gallagher, Isaac Patton, Douglass, Pheasant, Young,
Gibson, Smith, Stratton, Bailv and John Burns.
Y4 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Prisoners: Jolin Trimble, William Mars, John Seace, Michael
Miller, Robert Watson, John Allenton, Richard Fleman, James Cain,
Patrick Murphy, Abraham Anderson, Michael Haire.
Capt. Campbell's company:
Killed: William Allison. James McRight, Jonathan McKinley.
Prisoners: William Husk, Robert Wilson, James Dunseth, William
(^ZM Weatherington, Keany Quigley, Ezekiel Lewis.
Capt. Orr's company: -7^
Killed: John Forsyth, William Cain, Adam Erwin, Peter Maclin, ^~
Archibald Erskin, John Black, John Stewart, Joseph Crawford.
Prisoners: Adam Owry, Samuel Lefaver, John Hunter, Joseph
Erwin, Mans Kite, Hugh Steer, Hugh Moore.
Capt. Shannon's company:
Killed: Ebenezer Burns, killed by accident.
Prisoners: Solomon Aikens, John Lever, Jonas Fisher, George
Hill, John Porter, John Smith.
Lieut. Baker's company:
Killed: D'AUinger, George Butcher, John Rowe, Peter Brickman,
Jonas Peters, Jonas Brooks.^ ^ ; . .r~ ,' .-.,
Prisoners: John Catt, '"^Lawrence, Jacob Lawrence, Christopher
Tait, Charles Martlin, William Rourk, Wnd. Franks, Abraham Righley,
V George Mason.
Lieut. Anderson's company:
Killed: Samuel Evans, Sergt. Zeanz Harden, Matthew Lamb, John
Milegan, John Corn.
Prisoners: Norman McLeod, Sergt. James McFerson, William
Marshall, Denis McCarty, Peter Coneley, John Ferrel.
Taken prisoners in Maj. Creacroft's company:
Thomas James, Thomas Adkson, John Stakehouse, William Clark,
Elihu Risely, Alexander Burns.
Forty-eight privates and twelve officers taken; five officers and thirty-
six privates killed.
FORT FINNEY. 75
CHAPTER II.
FORT FINNEY.
Congress Proposes a Treaty with the Indians at Vincennes— Place
Changed to the Mouth of the Great Miami— Arrival of the Com-
missioners—Building THE Port— Isaac Zane— Hunting Buffalo-
Indians Arrive Slowly— Wyandot Camp— Shawnees Unfavorably
Disposed— Coolness of Gen. George Rogers Clark— The Treaty.
/;■ /''>^
FORT FINNEY was erected in the autumn of 1875 for the purpose of
protecting the United States commissioners and troops during the
negotiations with the Indians preliminary to the treaty there entered
into January 31, 1786. The fort stood on the bank of the Ohio above
the mouth of the Great Miami.
Congress resolved in March, 1785, to hold a treaty with the Indians
of the Wabash and other parts of Indiana at Vincennes, June 20,
1785. The place of meeting was afterward changed to the mouth of the
Great Miami. The representatives of the United States were George
Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Samael H. Parsons. Various circum-
stances caused the time of the negotiations to be changed to the winter
of 1785-86. The Wabash Indians refused to attend on account of a
growing spirit of hostility. Some chiefs and warriors of the Shawnees
and a few Delawares and Wyandots finally met the^commissioners.
A detailed account of the movements of the commissioners and the
troops accompanying them, the erection of the fort and the slow assem-
bling of the Indians is given in the journal of Maj. Ebenezer Danny,
published in 1860 by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In October,
1785, Lieut. Denny was ordered' to embark for the Great Miami in
company with Gens. Butler and Parsons, commissioners instructed to
treat with the Wyandot, Delaware and Shawnee Indians. The treaty
contemplated was saplementary to one made at Fort Mcintosh, in Janu-
ary, 1785, concerning which there had been complaints among the
Indians, and was principally intended to include the Shawnees who had
failed to appear at Fort Mcintosh. The company to which Lieut. Denny
was attached was commanded by Capt. Finney, and contained about
seventy men.
The fleet bearing the commissioners and troops left Fort Pitt early in
October, and consisted of twelve small keel-boats and batteaux, bearing
76 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
the troops and goods for the ladiaos, with two large Kentucky flats to
carry horses, cattle, etc. The arrival at North Bend and the erection of
Fort Finney are_,given in the following extract.
32:1 [Oct.]— Arrive at mouth of Great Miami. Best ground for our station
about a mile above the mouth, where the boats were brought, and everything un-
loaded. All hands set to work chopping, clearing, etc., and preparing timber for
block-houses and pickets, and on the 8th inst. [November] had ourselves inclosed;
hoisted the United Stales flag, and christened the place Fort Finney, in compliment
to Lieut. Finney, the commanding officer. Our work is a square stockade fort, sub-
stantial block-houses, two stories, twenty four by eighteen feet in each angle, con-
tains one hundred feet of stout pickets, four feet in tlie ground, and nine feet above,
situated one hundred and fifty yards from the river on a rising second bank. A
building eighteen by twenty feet, within the east and west curtains, for the accom-
modation and reception of contractors' stores and Indian goods; and one small but
strong building, center of north curtain, for magazine. A councilrhouse, twenty by
sixty, detached, but within gun-shot. Commissioners and their followers pitch their
tents within the fort, and erect wooden chimneys.
The .season was very favorable but cool, and the men were employed for some
time finishing the block-houses and clearing off the timber and brush for some dis-
tance outside. Gen. George Rogers Clark came up from the falls of the Ohio (Louis-
ville) and joined the other commissioners a few days later. On the 34th of Novem-
ber Maj. Denny notes the arrival of messengers, who set out from Pittsburgh to the
Indian town to invite the Indians to a treaty at Fort Finney, accompanied by six
chiefs of the Shawnees, Wyandot and Delaware nations, namely: Captain Johnny,
or Red Pole, Half King, Crane, Pipe, Wingman and White-Eyes— "all glad to see
us, brothers; some grog and smoke produced." On the 37th "about one hundred
Indians assemble and are camped a couple of miles from U3; the greatest part Wy-
andots; afewDelawares." On the 5th of December Maj. Denny makes entry; Gens.
Clark, Butler and Parsons'] leave us on a visit to the falls of the Ohio, about one
hundred and fifty miles below. Capt. Finney and myself, with a party of soldiers
in boats, go to Big Bone Liclv, thirty miles down; dig up and collect some astonish-
ing large bones.
Danny was occasionally in company with Isaac Zane, a man who had
been brought up among the Wyandots. On the 12th of December,
Denny, Zane and two Indians went up the river seven miles to hunt
buffalo. The Jouraal records that the bunting party returned on the
fourth day and brought the'meat of three buffalos, two bears and parts
of a number of deer. Oa the 20th of December the commissioners re-
turned from the falls, disappointed at not finding more Indians assembled.
Those who had come in were principally Wyandots and Delawares, with
whom the treaty at Fort Mcintosh was made. The Shawnees were the
ones for whom the proposed treaty was intended, but they hung back. It
has since been developed that the notorious Simon Girty and Robert
Suphlet, a cousin of the British agent, Alex McKee, were with the
Shawnees, endeavoring to prevent their attendance at the treaty.
At length, January 14, 1786, about 150 Shawnee men and eighty
women visited the fort and were received with high honors. The com-
FORT FINNEY.
77
missioaers directt^d that a party of soldiers should cook and serve out
provisions for them in the council-house. As the Shawnees selected al-
ways their old and decrepid women to do the cooking, when they saw
United States' soldiers carrying kettles of provisions to them they laughed
and shouted at them in derision. They approached the fort in a stately
manner with Indian music beat on a keg drum and singing. During the
negotiations the Wyandot camp was on the bank of the Great Miami,
about three miles north of Fort Finney.
Gen. George Rogers Clark understood the Indian character thoroughly.
He was a short, stout, square man with a high forehead, sandy
hair, blue eyes and heavy, shaggy eyebrows. He kept aloof from his
colleagues of the commission, and there seems to have been some jealousy
between them. With Lieut. Denny he was on familiar terms and in-
vited him to pass his evenings with him at his tent, where he talked
freely about his adventures and victories.
The Shawnees came to the fort in no friendly spirit, and but for the
profound knowledge possessed by Gen. Clark of their character, one
conference might have resulted in the murder of the commissioners.
Three hundred of their warriors, with their paint and feathers, Janu-
ary 14, filed into the council-house. Their demeanor was sullen and
suspicious. The commissioners sat at a table in the center of the cham-
ber. The scene is thus described in the "Encyclopedia Americana," by
an officer who was present:
"On the part of the Indians, an old council sachem, and a war chief
took the lead. The latter, a tall, raw-boned fellow with an impudent and
villainous look, made a boisterous and threatening speech, which oper-
ated effectually on the passions of the Indians, who set up a prodigious
whoop at every pause. He concluded by presenting a black and a white
wampum, to signify that they were prepared for either event, peace or
war. Clark exhibited the same unaltered and careless countenance he
had shown during the whole scene, his head leaning on his hand and his
elbow resting on the table. He raised his little cane and pushed the
sacred wampum off the table with little ceremony. Every Indian at the
same time started from his seat with one of those sudden, simultaneous
and peculiar savage sounds, which startle and disconcert the stoutest
heart and can neither be described nor forgotten.
"At this juncture Clark arose. The scrutinizing eye lowered at his
glance. He stamped his foot on the prostrate and insulted symbol and
ordered them to leave the hall. They did so, apparently involuntarily.
They were heard all night debating in ^the bushes near the fort. The
raw-boned chief was for war; the old sachem for peace. The latter pre-
vailed and the next morning they came back and sued for peace."
78 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
The troops remained at Fort Finney for several months after the
signing of the] treaty on January 31. A majority of the men in the
garrison were Irish, and celebrated St. Patrick's day by getting drunk,
in the evening only six men being fit for duty. One of the men died the
next day from the effects of too much liquor. On the 25th of March a
block-house, on the bank of the river, was completed to guard the boats.
The 4th of July was celebrated with three rounds from small arms and
three from the field piece. Lieut. Denny's diary at the fort closes in
July, 1786, when he was ordered to Fort Harm ar. At what time Fort
Finney was abandoned is not known, but it was before the settlement at
North Bend by Judge Symmes.
By the treaty of Fort Finney the United States were acknowledged to
be the sole and absolute sovereigns of all the territory ceded to them by
the treaty with Great Britain in 1784. Hunting grounds, lying chiefly
in Indiana, were allotted the Shawnees as follows:
"The United States do allot to the Shawnee nation lands within said
territory to live and hunt upon, beginning at the south line of the lands
allotted to the Wyandot and Delaware nations, at the place where the
main branch of the Great Miami, which falls into the Ohio, intersects
said line; thence down the river Miami to the fort of that river next below
the [old fort, which was taken by the French in one thousand seven
hundred and fifty-two; thence due west to the river De La Pause; thence
down that river to the river Wabash; beyond which lines none of the
citizens of the United States shall settle,- nor disturb the Shawnees in
their settlement possession."
The treaty failed entirely in securing peace, as the tribes more distant
than the Shawnees were in no way disposed to cease their incursions.
THE MIAMI PURCHASE. 79
/t,
CHAPTER III.
THE MIAMI PURCHASE.
First Exploration of the Miami Country— Christopher Gist— Benja-
min Stites— John Cleves Symmes— Columbia— Cincinnati — North
Bend— Troops at the Mouth of the Great Miami— Their Kemoval
TO Cincinnati— Flat-Bottomed Water Craft— Judge Symmes's
Policy with the Indians— Failure of his Efforts to Maintain
Peace— The Indian War Begins.
A NUMBER of the earliest pioneers of Dearborn and Ohio Counties
first settled, after their immigration to the West, in the tract be-
t^een the Miami Rivers, known as Symmes's Purchase, or the Miami
Purchase. This tract was settled several years before any of the lands
below the Great Miami. Some account of the Miami Purchase is
necessary to a correct understanding of the history of the counties with
which we are dealing.
The first white man on record who explored the Miami region, and
probably passed within or near the present limits of Dearborn County,
was Christopher Gist, agent and explorer for the Ohio Land Company of
Virginia. Traveling with horses and accompanied by one or two wood-
'nen, Gist passed into the interior of what is now the State of Ohio, in
the winter of 1750-51. He had a conference with the Miami Indians at
Piqua, their chief town, and thence passed down the Mijuni Valley to the
Ohio. At that time the buffalo, whose original range seems to have been
nearly the whole of North America, was an inhabitant of the Miami
country, and was seen by Gist in droves of thirty or forty. "Nothing is
wanted," he wrote, "but cultivation to make this a moa^^ delightful coun-
try." This journey was made eighteen years before^aniel Boone first
saw the valley of the Kentucky.
Not long after the treaty of Fort Finney, Maj. Benjamin Stites, then
of Red Stone, Penn. , explored the region between the Miamis, and
through infonination obtained from him Judge John Cleves Symmes, of
New Jersey, made a contract with the treasury board of the United States
for the purchase of the lands.
Three parties were formed to occupy and improve separate portions
of Symmes's Purchase. The first, led by Benjamin Stites, consisted of
twenty-two male persons, with the families of some of them, who,
80 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
November 18, 1788, landed at the mouth of the Little Miami, and
founded Columbia, within the limits of a tract of 10,000 acres, deeded by
Symmes to Stites. The second party was formed at Limestone under
Matthias Denman and Robert Patterson, amounting to twelve or fifteen
persons, and landed opposite the mouth of the Licking near the close of
December, 1788, and founded Cincinnati, first called Losanteville. The
third party was under the immediate direction and care of Judge Symmes,
and left Limestone January 29, 1789, and on their passage down the
river were delayed and obstructed by floating ice, which covered the
river. Early in February they reached North Bend, above the mouth of
the Great Miami, where the Judge proposed to found a city. North
Bend received its name from the fact that it was the most northern bend
of the Ohio below the mouth of the Great Kanawha.
Judge Symmes laid out a village at this bend, and every individ-
ual settler of the party accompanying him received a donation lot, which
he was required to improve on condition of obtaining a title. At Cleves,
Ohio, the Great Miami approaches within a mile of the Ohio River, but
instead of flowing into the great stream at this place, it makes an abrupt
detour to the west and south, and only reaches its destination after a cir-
cuit of ten miles. Its approach to the Ohio is blocked by a ridge 150
feet in height, through which a railroad tunnel is constructed. On the
peninsula between the two rivers Judge Symmes laid out a city on a mag-
nificent scale, extending from the Ohio to the Great Miami. He named
it Symmes City, and he intended it to be the great metropolis of his pur-
chase. His project, however, failed, and even the name of the projected
city was forgotten. The settlement continued to be called North Bend.
After returning from his purchase, the Judge was so highly delighted
with the fertility of his lands that, on September 22, 1789, he wrote
from Maysville to his associate, Gen. Jonathan Dayton, that he thought
some of the land near the Great Miami "positively worth a silver dollar
to the acre in its present state."
Gen. Harmar, in a letter from Fort Washington, dated January 14,
1790, one year after the commencement of the settlements between the
Mi amis, thus describes them: "The distance between the Little and
Great Miami is twenty-eight measured^ miles. Near the Little Miami
there is a settlement called Columbia; here, some miles distant from
Columbia, there is another named Losanteville, but changed lately to
Cincinnati, and Judge Symmes himself resides at the other, about
fifteen miles from hence, called the Miami City, at the north bend of the
Ohio River. They are in general but small cabins, and the inhabitants
of the poorer class of people."
At the solicitation of Judge Symmes, Gen. Harmar sent Capt, Kearsey
THE MIAMI PURCHASE. 81
with forty-eight rank and file, to protect the settlements commenced in
the Miami country. A part of the men were for a short time at Columbia,
aa a guard to the pioneers, under Maj. Stites, but through the influence
of Judge Symmes, the entire command proceeded to North Bend, and
landed there about the 1st of February, 1789. Capt.Kearsey intended to
occupy Fort Finuey, built at the mouth of the Great Miami three years be-
fore, but this purpose was defeated by the high water, which spread over the
high grounds, and rendered it difficult to reach the fort. He was much
disappointed, as he expected to find a fort ready built for him, and was not
provided with the implements ready to construct one. He was so much
displeased that, according to Judge Burnet, he resolved not to attempt to
construct a new fort, but to leave North Bend and join the garrison at
Louisville, and early in March embarked for the falls of the Ohio with
his command.
Judge Symmes wrote to Maj. Willis, commandant of the garrison at
Louisville, complaining of the conduct of Capt. Kearsey, representing
the exposed situation of the Miami settlements, and requesting a guard
to be sent to North Bend. This request was promptly complied with,
and before the close of the month of March, Ensign Luce, with seven-
teen or eighteen soldiers, arrived and were stationed for a time at the Bend.
It was not long before an attack upon them was made by the Indians,^
in which one soldier was killed and four or five others were wounded,
including a surveyor from New Jersey, Maj. J. E. Mills. Although he
recovered from his wounds, he felt their disabling effects until his death.
The presence of troops for a while gave North Bend a decided advan-
tage over its two rival settlements. Many of the first adventurers
planted themselves at the Bend, believing it to be the place of greatest
safety. Ensign Luce, however, only erected a temporary work of defense
at that place, regardless of the earnest entreaties of the Judge to proceed
at once to the erection of a permanent fort. September 16; 1789, Maj.
Doughty arrived in the Miami country with instructions to erect a strong
fortification at the most suitable point. After reconnoitering three days,
he fixed upon Cincinnati "as high and healthy, and abounding with
never-failing springs, and the most proper position." The soldiers were
removed from the Bend to Cincinnati, and many of the settlers followed.
The latter place became the great commercial metropolis of the Miami
country.
The fiat bottomed water-craft called arks or Kentucky boats, in
which the early emigrants descended the Ohio, were often immense
structures and made in a most substantial manner. These boats were
built of stout oak plank, fastened by wooden pins to frames of timber.
The cabin was well protected and placed in the stern. From it the
82 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
/
smoke curled up gracefully. The fire within gave warmth and comfort
for the women and children when the wind was chill or the rain was
falling. When the weather was pleasant, picturesque groups of men,
women and children could be seen in the middle part of the boat, noise-
lessly floating along — the only motive power the current of the stream.
The cattle, provisions and furniture were placed in the bows. Had it
not been for the dangers from murderous savages lurking along the
shore it was a pleasant enough mode of traveling. When the boat
reached its destination it was broken up, and the materials of which it
was constructed served a useful purpose in building the new homes of
the emigrants.
Judge Symmes, the projector of the Miami Purchase, had his resi-
dence at North Bend until his death. " His tomb is about thirty rods
west from that of Gen. Harrison. On a tablet covering his grave is the
following inscription: "Here rest the remains of John Cleves Symmes,
who, at the foot of these hills, made the first settlement between the
Miami Elvers. Born on Long Island, State of New York, July 21,
1742; died at Cincinnati, February 26, A. D., 1814." Judge Symmes
had been chief justice of New Jersey, and at the time he embarked in
his land speculation in the West, was a member of the Colonial Con-
gress. He was the father-in-law of President Harrison. The name of
Judge Symmes should not be confounded with that of Capt. John
Cleves Symmes, of Hamilton, Ohio, author of the theory that "the earth
is hollow, habitable within and widely open about the poles." The
author of this theory which has been ridicaled in the expression
"Symmes' Hole," was a nephew of the land speculatoi*. Although
Judge Symmes contracted with Congress to pay only 66| cents per acre
for the land between the Miami Rivers, and his purchase is one of the
most valuable and fertile tracts in the United States, yet he was not
financially successful in his project. Indian hostilities so long delayed
the settlement of his purchase that he was unable to meet his obligations
to the Government. ^
Judge Symmes proposed to treat the Indians kindly and justly, and
thus to prevent an outbreak between them and his settlements. There
were no Indian towns in the lower part of the country between the
Miamis or on the west side of the Great Miami in the region now in-
cluded in Dearborn, Ohio and Switzerland Counties. This is contrary
to the general impression, but Gen. Harrison, who came to the Miami
country when a mere boy, and was familiar with Indian history and tradi-
tions, was emphatic in denying that this portion of the Ohio Valley had
been occupied as a place of residence by the Indians for centuries before
the first arrival of the whites. But while there were no Indian towns
THE MIAMI PURCHASE. 88
in this region, the red men claimed thecountry as their hunting ground,
and were frequently found encamped in the valleys in considerable
numbers.
As the number of white emigrants increased, the Indians con-
templated the movements of the whites with much jealousy. They
denied the binding obligation of the treaty under which the United
States claimed to have obtained the lands. They not only saw that the
rapidly forming settlements would deprive them of their hunting
grounds, but they also suffered many outrages from lawless and cruel
white men who were controlled by no sense of justice or humanity.
In one of his earliest exploring expeditions up the Great Miami,
Judge Symmes, who was in company with a considerable body of Ken-
tuckians, came across a small and defenseless body of Indians. The
Kentuckians, incensed at depredations by savage hordes, in their State, and
hating even the name of Indian, wished to shoot them at sight. Symmes
interposed for their protection, which proceeding, he says, the Kentuck-
ians thought unpardonable.
Not long after/the commencement of the settlement at North Bend,
as Judge Burnet relates, Symmes was visited by a number of Indians
from a camp in the neighborhood of the Columbia settlement. One of
them, a Shawnee chief, had many complaints to make of frauds practiced
upon them by white traders, who, however, had no connection with the
pioneers. After several conversations and some small presents, he pro-
fessed to be satisfied with the explanation he had received, and gave
assurances that the Indians would trade with the white men as friends.
In one of their interviews the Judge told him he had been com-
missioned and sent out by the thirteen fires in the spirit of friendship
and kindness, and that he was instructed to treat them as friends and
brothers. In proof of this, he showed them the flag of the Union, with
its stars and stripes, and also his commission, having the great seal of the
United States attached to it; exhibiting the American eagle, with olive
branch in one claw, emblematic of peace, and the instrument of war and
death in the other. He explained the meaning of these symbols. At
first the chief did not think them very striking emblems either of peace
or war, but before he departed from the Bend he gave assurances of the
most friendly character.
Notwithstanding all this, when the Indians left the settlements for
their own towns they stole, as the whites would say, but as they said,
took, a number of horses from the Columbia settlement in compensation
for the injuries they had received from the white traders. These thefts
were repeated and a party of whites was sent out in pursuit. As they
approached the Indian camp, Capt. Flinn was sent forward cautiously
84 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
to reconnoiter. He was surprised, taken captive and carried into the
Indian camp. Not being very closely watched, and having great confi-
dence in his activity and fleetness, at a favorable moment he sprang from
the camp and made his way in safety to his friends. There were a num-
ber of horses belonging to the Indians near their camp. Not finding
their own, the whites took the Indians' horses and returned to their set-
tlement. In a few days the Indians came back to Columbia, returned
Capt. Flinn's rifle and complained of the loss of their horses. The
matter was finally amicably arranged.
Notwithstanding the peaceful policy of Judge Symmes, it was impos-
sible to prevent the outbreak of hostilities. Before many months elapsed
two boys at Columbia were shockingly murdered, and the head of one of
them was found fixed on a pole. Doubtless, in some cases, lone Indians
were shot down in the woods by roving bands of worthless white men.
The long war, which continued for nearly seven years, was commenced.
All peaceful intercommunication between the white and red men ceased.
Orders were given that every white man enrolled in the militia should
carry his gun and be equipped ready for fight at all gatherings, whether
on Sunday or other days. Thus it will be seen a dark cloud early
hovered over the new settlements between the Miamis, and eclipsed for
a time the bright hopes indulged in at the commencement of Judge
Symmes' s enterprise.
The Indian war was a most unfortunate one for the Miami settle-
ment. Many persons bought lands from Judge Symmes, immigrated to
the Miami country, but could not live upon their lands for fear of the
Indians. Many of the pioneers, who afterward settled on both sides of
the Great Miami, were for years compelled to remain within the protec-
tion of block- houses and forts. Dr. Ezra Ferris estimated the number of
male persons capable of bearing arms at the principal settlements in
1791 as follows: Columbia, 150; Cincinnati, 100; North Bend, 80;
Dunlap's Station, 15; Cavalt's Station, 20.
The unhappy condition of many of these adventurers who were
prevented from occupying their lands, and the methods adopted of
building stations of defense, are described by Judge Burnet in the
following extract from his notes:
" A large number of the original adventurers to the Miami Purchase
had exhausted their means by paying for their land and removing their
families to the country. Others were wholly destitute of pi'operty, and
came out as volunteers, under the expectation of obtaining, gratuitously,
such small tracts of land as might be forfeited by the purchasers, under
Judge Symmes, for not making the improvements required by the
conditions stipulated in the terms of sale and settlement of Miami lands,
THE MIAMI PURCHASE. 85
published by the Judge in 1787. The class of adventurers first named
was comparatively numerous, and had come out under an expectation of
taking immediate possession of their lands, and of commencing the cul-
tivation of them for subsistence. Their situation, therefore, was distress-
ing. To go out into the wilderness to till the soil appeared to be certain
death; to remain in the_j settlements threatened them with starvation.
The best provided of the pioneers found it difficult to obtain subsistence,
and, of course, the class now spoken of were not far from total destitu-
tion. They depended on game, fish, and such products of the earth as
could be raised on small patches of ground in the immediate vicinity of
the settlements.
" Occasionally, small lots of provisions were brought down the river
by emigrants, and sometimes were transported on pack-horses from
Lexington, at heavy expense, and not without danger. But supplies
thus procured were beyond the reach of those destitute persons now
referred to.
" Having endured these privations as long as they could be borne, the
more resolute of them determined to brave the consequences of moving
on to their lands. To accomplish the object with the least exposure,
those whose lands were in the same neighborhood united as one family;
and, on that principle, a number of associations were formed amounting
to a dozen or more, who went out resolved to maintain' their
positions.
" Each party erected a strong block-house, near to which their cabins
were put up, and the whole was enclosed by strong log pickets. This being
done, they commenced clearing their lands and preparing for planting
their crops. During the day, while they were at work, one person was
placed as a sentinel to warn them of approaching danger. At sunset
they retired to the block-house and their cabins, taking everything of
value within the pickets. In this manner they proceeded from day to
day and week to week, till their improvements were sufficiently extensive
to support their families. During this time they depended for subsis-
tence on wild game, obtained at some hazard, more than on the scanty
supplies they were able to procure from the settlements on the river.
" In a short time, the stations gave protection and food to a large
number of destitute families. After they were established the Indians
became less annoying to the settlements on the Ohio, as part of their
time was employed in watching the stations. The former, however, did
not escape, bat endured their share of the fruits of savage hostility. In
fact no place or situation was exempt from danger. The safety of the
pioneer depended on his means of defense, and on perpetual
vigilance.
86 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
" The Indians viewed those stations with great jealousy, as they had
the appearance of permanent military establishments, intended to retain
possession of their country. In that view they were correct; and it was
fortunate for the settlers that the Indians wanted either the skill or means
of demolishing them.
" The truth of the matter is, their great error consisted in permiting
those works to be constructed at all. They oiight have prevented it with
great ease, but they appeared not to be aware of the serious consequences
which were to result until it was too late to act with effect. Several
attacks were, however, made at different times, with an apparent deter-
mination to destroy them; but they failed in every instance."
CHAPTER IV.
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
Hostility of the Indians Against thk Settlements in Kentucky-
Attacks on Tanner's Station— Killing of John Filson and Abner
Hunt— Attack on Dunlap's Station— Capture of Young Fuller
—The Murder of De Moss— Murder of Benjamin Cox and Thomas
Walters— Premiums for Indian Scalps— Indian Depredations
Checked by Wayne's Victory— Indians Continue to Steal Horses.
THE hostility of the Indians against the whites was displayed before
the commencement of the settlements between the Miamis, They
intercepted boats passing up and down the Ohio, and attempted to break
up the white stations on the south side of the river. Large numbers of
the savages frequently encamped and hunted in the region embracing
Dearborn, Ohio and Switzerland Counties, and passed over into Ken-
tucky for the purpose of stealing horses and annoying the settlements in
that State. There were extensive hunting grounds of the tribes of the
Wabash and Maumee in the southeast part of Indiana.
While Fort Finney was occupied, Lieut. Denny recorded in his jour-
nal that a station, consisting of a few families with a stockade for
defense, had been erected on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, about six
miles below Fort Finney. On the morning of March 20, 1786, an
express from the station informed the garrison at the fort that the
Indians had attacked two of their people a short distance from the sta-
tion, killed one and wounded the other. The wounded person escaped
into the cabins at the stockade. Lieut. Denny took a light boat with a
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS. 87
sergeant and twelve men, and hastened to the station. He found the
dead man scalped and cut in several places; he buried him, assisted in
rendering the stockade more secure and returned home. This station
was probably Tanner's, at what is now Petersburg, Ky.
Four years later, John Garnet, in a deposition taken before a magis-
trate, for the use of the Kentucky authorities, stated that he was at Tan-
ner's Station on the Ohio, about five miles below the mouth of the Big
Miami, in the latter part of April or the beginning of May, 1790, when
five Indians placed themselves in ambush between the cabin of Mr. Tan-
ner and his field, and captured his son, a lad about nine years of age,
with whom they crossed the Ohio. It appears also from other deposi-
tions that in the fall preceding two men had been killed at or near the
station.
After the commencement of the settlements between the Miamis, a
number of persons were killed along the Great Miami. John Filson,
one of the original proprietors of Cincianati, having gone up the Great
Miami, on an exploring expedition in company with Judge Symmes,
became separated from the rest of the company, and, as is believed, was
killed. The date of this event is given as October 1, 1788.
In January, 1791, a large band of Indians led, it was afterward
reported, by the notorious Simon Girty, were roving in the woods west of
the Great Miami. Abner Hunt, one of Judge Symmes' surveyors, John
S. Wallace, John Sloan and a Mr. Cunningham had been exploring the
country west of the Great Miami, and on the morning of January 8,
after roasting their venison and taking breakfast at the camp, set out on
further explorations. About 100 yards from their camp they were beset
by the savages in the rear, who fired a volley of eight or ten guns. Cun-
ningham was killed on the spot; Hunt, being thrown from his horse,
was made prisoner; Sloan, although shot through the body, kept on his
horse and made his escape, Hunt's loose horse following him. Wallace
was on foot at the time, and took to the woods pursued by two Indians,
and being uncommonly active out-ran them. In about two miles he
overtook Sloan, with Hunt's horse following him, which he caught and
mounted. They made their way to Danlap's Station on the Great Miami.
On the morning of January 10, Danlap's Station was attacked by a very
large body of Indians, probably numbering 400 or 500. The block-
house at that time was occupied by a small detachment oE United States
troops, of about eighteen soldiers, commanded _^by Lieut. Kingsbury.
The Indians compelled Abner Hunt to mount a stump and to demand the
surrender of the station. This was refused, and the Indians made a des-
perate effort to take the block-hoase, but it was bravely and successfully
defended. Abner Hunt was cruelly tortured, and put to death in sight
of the garrison. 5
88 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
CAPTURE OF TOUNG FULLER.
Mr. William McGlure, of Franklin County, Ind., whose father came
from Kentucky and settled near Cleves in 1804, gave the following nar-
rative in 1879:
"I learned from Capt. Isaac Fuller, of this county (Franklin), that
his father lived as early as 1794 or 1795 at North Bend and in the Big
Bottom, and that he helped to raise the first patch of corn that was ever
raised by white men in the Big Bottom. He also told me he had a
brother about sixteen years of age taken by the Indians from North
Bend, about 1795. He had been sent after the cows. The Indians de-
coyed him by using a bell. His father, alone, followed them to near
Brookville, and stayed all night on the place on which I now live, and
watched the movements of the Indians, but was unable to effect his
son's release. The Indians took him to the Upper Wabash country, and
he remained with them about two years. He was left by his master at
the camp with the squaws, with directions what to do, but after the In-
dians left, one of the squaws, a half-sister of the celebrated Tecumseh,
ordered him to work at something else, which he refused to do, when she
tried to kill him. He kept out of her way for the time, believing she
would kill him if she had an opportunity. Soon after he went with her
fishing, and watching an opportunity, he struck her with a club on the
back of the head, and knocked her into a deep hole of water, where he
supposed she was drowned. Then he struck out for Detroit, where he
arrived in about a week, subsisting himself as best he could, being fol-
lowed by the Indians all the way, whom he succeeded in eluding. After
he arrived in Detroit he found a friend, who secreted him for a day or
two until the Indians ceased hunting for him, when he conveyed him
over to Maldon, on the Canadian side of the Detroit Biver, from which
place he went to Bufifalo, N. Y., and from there he went home through
New York and Pennsylvania, and down the Ohio Kiver."
THE MURDER OF DE MOSS.*
In the spring of 1793 a number of families from Cohambia, Cincin-
nati and North Bend, made a settlement at the mouth of the Big Miami,
which was called the Point. Among the families from Columbia, I
recollect those of Hugh Dunn, Benjamin Randolph and Isaac Mills.
The arrival of Gen. Wayne's army, in the spring, increased the confi-
dence of the new settlers, and caused other families to join them. They
argued that the presence of so large an army at Cincinnati would deter
the Indians and keep them quiet. But some who thought they under-
stood the Indian character better, said they would constantly keep small
*Dr. Ezra Ferris.
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS. 89
parties of their most daring warriors hovering about our frontiers to
watch the movements of the ai-my, and that the exposed settlements
would be more liable to attack. With the last opinion Mr. William
Smalley, who had escaped from Indian captivity, agreed. Mr. Smalley
warned the people that they would have no abatement of hostilities until
the Indians were whipped. He said they as much expected to defeat
Wayne as they were certain they had defeated Harmar and St. Clair.
During the summer of 1793-94, a Mr. Rittenhouse built a mill to
grind corn on a small stream passing down from the hill to the Miami,
through where the town of Cleves now stands. The mill was a wet-
weather concern, the,stream being small, but it was a great accommoda-
tion to the people at that time. In the after part of the winter or begin-
ning of spring, after a rain sufficient to supply the mill with water, Mr.
DeMoss, with a young man by the name of Micajah Dunn, and another
named Thomas Fuller, went from the settlement before named (Goose
Pond) to Rittenhouse's Mill, with each a bag of corn to have ground.
They were detained so as not to start home until after dark; that, how-
ever, produced but little inconvenience as there was very bright moon-
light. A short distance after leaving the mill, they came to the residence
of Mr. Wheeling, and seeing several persons there, Mr. Dunn and the
other young man rode up to the door to make some inquiry, but Mr.
DeMoss rode on expecting soon to be overtaken by them.
Whilst sitting on their horses talking about twenty minutes, they
heard the firing of guns in the direction DeMoss had gone; that did
not create much alarm, however, as the people were in the habit of going
out on moonlight nights to kill game. They started immediately after
hearing the guns, and rode as briskly as their horses could travel with
the load they had. They found DeMoss lying across the path dead, and
the bag of meal by his side. It would be useless to attempt to describe
their feelings in that trying moment, following a narrow path in the
woods, surrounded by a large growth of trees, behind which they might
easily imagine their enemies wei'e concealed. They reached their homes,
gave the alarm, and a party was raised to go after and carry the corpse
of DeMoss to his family.
This bloody scene took place almost within hearing of Lawrence-
burgh, had there been any person there to hear. The Mr. Dunn here
alluded to, was the eldest brother of Judge Isaac Dunn, and the father
of Gersham Dunn and others of Lawrenceburgh.
MURDER OF BENJAMIN COX AND THOMAS WALTER.
In the winter of 1794-95, Benjamin Cox and Thomas Walter were
killed by the Indians on the bank of Double Lick Run, one-fourth of a
90 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
mile southwest of the stone which marks the Hue between Ohio and Indi-
ana on the road leading from Lawrenceburg to Elizabethtown. Dr.
Ezra Ferris thus describes this act of savage barbarity.
"When in the state nature had formed it, and before it had been sub-
dued by the hand of man, the Big Bottom had, in addition to the com-
mon trees of the forest, including thickets of plum and haw trees, a
luxuriant vegetable, sometimes called hog-weed, but commonly called
horse-weed. This weed was thick on the ground, and in a few weeks in
summer would grow to the height of from ten to fifteen feet, bearing a
seed, which, when ripe, was eaten by hogs. Soon after the settlement
was formed by the white people on the east side of the Big Miami (near
the Point), some of their hogs crossed over the river to graze and feed in
these thickets, and some of them remained so long that no one continued
to exercise ownership over them or their increase, until,^like the deer in
the woods, they became the property of any person who could find and
take them.
" Late in the fall of 1794 several persons from the settlement on the
east side of the river crossed over into the bottom in search of hogs to
use as meat for the ensuing season. Among them were Isaac Mills,
Isaac Dunn, Benjamin Cox, Thomas Walters, Josej)h Randolph, Joseph
Kitchel and Isaac Vanness. After an unsuccessful search for the most
of the day it was proposed by some of them to return home for the night
and renew the search the next morning, but Cox and Walters thought it
would be best to encamp on the ground, so as to have the advantage of an
early start in the morning; the balance disagreeing with them returned
home, and they remained in the woods. Indications made it appear
that after the others left they followed down Doable Lick Run, about 100
yards below the place where the road from Lawrenceburgh to Elizabeth -
town crosses it, where they selected a place to stay for the night, and
made a fire to sleep by on the ground. Toward midnight the people at
the settlement were very much alarmed at the report of several guns
heard in the direction that Cox and Walters were left by the company,
and fears were entertained of their safety.
" Early the next morning a number of persons started to ascertain the
fate of the two men. They repaired to the place where the company left
them the previous evening, but not finding them, they scattered through
the woods in search of them, and after a short time Mr. Garrett Vanness
and Isaac Dunn, who were following down the creek, came upon the body
of Mr. Cox near the place where they had built a fire. He had been
shot and scalped and otherwise mangled. The balance of the company
were called together, and after a little search found Mr. Walters
dead in the woods, seventy or eighty yards from where he was first shot.
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS. 91
and from appearance of things it was concluded that he had been first
wounded and m ade an attempt to escape, but was followed, killed and
scalped.
"These bodies presented a horrible appearance, and they were the last
killed in the Miami country. The barbarity the savages exercised on
them gave little evidence of a disposition on their part to make peace.
The traveler passing from Lawrenceburgh to Elizabethtown, as he
crosses the run near the stone building, lately the residence of Thomas
Miller, may at any time, by turning his head to the right, glance his
eye over the spot where Benjamin Cox and Thomas Walters, the last vic-
tims of savage barbarity in the war closing with "Wayne's treaty, were
cruelly, murdered. "
The time at which this atrocity was committed was later than that
stated by Dr. Ferris. Since commencing the work of compiling this
history we have been enabled to tix the date from the tile of the Centinel
of the Northicestern Territovy. In its issue of February 7, 1795, that
journal contained the following item: "Arrived here yesterday from the
mouth of the Great Miami, Mr. Isaac Mills who informs us that on Monday
evening last the Indians killed two men by the names of Benjamin Cox
and Thomas Walter, about one mile and a half from that place." Accord-
ing to this the date of the murder was February 2, 1795.
PREMIUMS FOR INDIAN SCALPS.
The long war which was ended with Wayne's treaty at Greenville
was a cruel one. The Miami country was known as the "Miami Slaugh-
ter House." The bloody depredations of the savages so incensed the
settlers that they were induced to take measures for their protection
which it is not pleasant to record. It is not perhaps generally known that
men of high standing formed a committee to publish a notice offering
premiums for Indian scalps and to keep the scalp money subscribed by
"many good citizens with a design to check the incursions of the hostile
Indians." A portion of Dearborn County was included in the district
within which young men were offered inducements to range the woods
"to prevent savages from committing depredations on defenseless citi-
zens." Early in the spring of 1794, a subscription paper was in circu-
lation at Columbia to provide premiums for scalps of Indians. And in
the Centinel of the Northwest Territory of May 17, 1794, a committee
consisting of L. Woodward, Darius C. Orcutt and James Lyons, of Cin-
cinnati, and William Brown, Ignatius Ross and John Reily, of Colum-
bia, publish a notice offering rewards for Indian scalps taken between
the 18th of April and the 25th of December, 1794, in a district begin-
ning on the Ohio ten miles above the mouth of the Little Miami, extend-
92 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
ing ten miles west of the Great Miami, and twenty-five back into the
country, above where Harmar's trace crosses the Little Miami, and in a
direct line west. Rewards were offered as follows:
"That for every scalp having the right ear appendant, for the first
ten Indians who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid, by
those who are subscribers to the said articles, shall, whenever collected,
be paid the sum of $136; and for every scalp of the like number of Indians,
having the right ear appendant, who shall be killed within the time and
limits aforesaid by those who are not subscribers, the Federal troops ex
cepted, shall, whenever collected, be paid the sum of $100; and for
every scalp having the right ear appendant of the second ten Indians
who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid, by those who
are subscribers to the said articles, shall, whenever collected as afore-
said, be paid the sum of $117; and for every scalp having the right ear
appendant of the second ten Indians who shall be killed within the time
and limits aforesaid by those who are not subscribers to the said articles
shall, whenever collected, be paid the sum of $95."
Wayne's decisive victory in August, 1794, put a check to the depre-
dations, but it did not at once reduce them to absolute submission. De
Moss, Cox and Walters were all killed several months after the victory
at Fallen Timbers. According to Dr. Ezra Ferris the Indians continued
their hostilities on the settlers at Columbia for some months after
Wayne's victory. Robert Griffin and a young Paul and David Jennings
were killed, and Reason Bailey was captured by the Indians in the vicin-
ity of Columbia, all in the fall of 1794.
The Centinel of the Northu-'est Territory of March 14, 1795, an-
nounced that on Saturday evening, March 6, the Indians stole eight
horses from North Bend; the next morning Lieut. Aladon Symmes with
a party of twenty-seven men pursued them about sixty miles and retook
the horses; but unfortunately the Indians discovering his party made
their escape. As late as May 9, 1795, the Indians stole nine horses
from Ludlow's Station, only five miles from Cincinnati, and though pur-
sued made their escape.
The treaty of peace at Greenville, concluded August 3, 1795, put an
end to the murder of white men by Indians in the Miami settlements,
but horses continued to be stolen by them. Judge Symmes thought that
white men who bought horses from the Indians were to blame, as the
Indians would steal horses to take the place of those they had sold.
The judge wrote to Gen. Dayton, in 1796, that he wished Congress would
make it a penal offense for a white man to buy a horse from an Indian, as
no Indian would walk when he could steal a horse.
Sometimes, however, a white man would steal a horse from the In-
PIONEER HISTORY. 93
dians, and we have the record of the conviction of at least one man for
this offense. In March, 1796, at Cincinnati, the seat of justice for the
whole Miami region, Daniel McKean, lately arrived from New Jersey,
was found guilty of stealing a horse from an Indian. He was sentenced
to pay the red man $1, and receive thirty-nine lashes in the most public
streets of the town, and bear on the front of his hat, during the inflic-
tion of the punishment, a paper, with the inscription in large letters:
"I stole a horse from the Indians."
CHAPTER V.
PIONEER HISTORY.
Some Very Early Settlements Attempted Northwest of the Ohio-
Important Dates— Tanner's Station— Ma j. Byrd's Stockade Near
THE Site or Lawrenceburgh— Pioneer Adventures at the Mouth
OF the Great Miami— The Story of Benjamin Walker— Progress
OF THE Early Settlements— Early Surveys and Sales of Land-
Indian Bands Encamp Near the Settlements— Early Commercial
Intercourse and Prices — Pioneer Life— Log-Cabins and Their
Furniture— The Primitive Forests and Wild Beasts— Character
of the Early Emigrants.
THE question who were the first white men to build their cabins in
Dearborn and Ohio Counties, is an interesting one, but it can
now never be satisfactorily answered. One cause of the uncertainty in
this matter is the fact that settlements were attempted on the northwest
side of the Ohio at a very early period, some of them being commenced
not long after the treaty of Fort Mcintosh, in January, 1785. Settle-
ments were attempted at various places along the Ohio, but were pre-
vented by the authorities of the United States. Proclamations by Con-
gress were issued against settling upon the public domain as early as
1785. Hundreds of families had built their cabins on the Indian side
of 'the Ohio, previous to the settlement at Marietta, in April, 1788, and
were driven away by the military power of the United States. Jan-
uary 24, 1785, the commissioner of Indian affairs instructed Col. Har-
mar " to employ such force as he may judge necessary in driving off
persons attempting to settle on the lands of the United States."
From the correspondence published in the St. Clair papers, it appears
that the number of persons who had established themselves on the
northwest side of the Ohio as intruders on the government lands before
94 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
the settlements at Marietta and Cincinnati, was mucli larger than is
usually supposed. John Emerson, March 12, 1785, took upon him-
self the authority to issue a proclamation for elections by the inhabitants
of the west side of the Ohio for the choosing of members of a conven-
tion for forming a constitution, the elections to take place April 10,
1785; one at the mouth of the Miami, one at the mouth of the Scioto,
one on the Muskingum, and one at the house of Jonas Menzous, the loca-
tion of which was not given. Ensign John Armstrong reported early
in 1785, that from the best information he could obtain, there were
1,500 persons on the Miami and Scioto and upward of 300 families on
the Hockhocking and Muskingum, and down the Ohio for a great dis-
tance there was scarcely one bottom without one or more families. It
is not improbable that some of these early settlements were attempted
below the mouth of the Great Miami and within the limits of Dearborn
and Ohio Counties. These early intruders on the government lands
were dispossessed by the authorities.
To those who are acquainted with the bloody character of the war
waged by the Indians against the white settlements northwest of the Ohio,
it will appear highly improbable that there could have been any white set
tiers below the Great Miami from the commencement of that war in 1789
until Wayne's treaty of peace in 1795. It should be remembered that
during this savage war there was scarcely any military protection for the
Miami settlements. Judge Burnett says: " It is a perversion of language
to apply the phrase 'military protection ' to anything enjoyed by the
Miami people at the time when protection was most wanted. If it be
asked what protection they really did receive during the period of great
est exposure, the answer may be given in a few words. Eighteen sol-
diers were stationed at Columbia in the fall of 1 788 ; one company
halted at North Bend thirty-four days in the winter of 1788-89; after
which a detachment of eighteen, rank and file, landed at the same place,
where they remained a few days, and then proceeded to Cincinnati." If
we add to these Maj. Byrd's battalion at the stockade on the west side of
the Great Miami during the last months of the Indian war, we have the
entire military protection afforded to three infant settlements extending
nearly thirty miles in an enemy's country.
With these facts before us it would seem highly improbable that
any families with women and childi-en were permanently settled in Dear-
born or Ohio Counties much before the ratification. of the treaty at Green-
ville, although some of the more daring woodmen may have ventured to
build huts north of the Ohio and below the Great Miami soon after
Wayne's victory. If so, they were willing not only to brave dangers
from savage foes, but to endure privations of a lonely life in the wilder-
PIONEER HISTORY. 95
ness. Family traditions concerning early settlements often confound
the date of the first visit of a pioneer to his future home with that of his
first settlement. Some of the early settlers of Dearborn and Ohio Coun-
ties came f I'om Kentucky, and some of them may have remained on the
south side of the river awaiting the time when they could safely remove
north of the Ohio. Doubtless in some cases crops of corn were grown
north of the river by those who still lived in the more secure settlements
on the Kentucky side.
IMPORTANT DATES.
The following dates exhibit the progress of the white man's domin-
ion'along the Great Miami:
\/ First settlement at North Bend, February, 1789.
Dunlap's Station, protected by a strong fortification, on the east side
of the Great Miami, seventeen miles above Cincinnati, established early
in the spring of 1790.
Maj. Byrd's stockade on the west side of the Great Miami, erected
in the winter of 1793-94.
Wayne's victory, August 20, 1794.
V Hamilton laid out on the east side of the Great Miami, December
17, 1794.
Wayne's treaty of peace, August 3, 1795.
Government survey of lands, west of the Great Miami, commenced
in 1798.
Act of Congress providing for sale of lands west of the Great Miami,
May 10, 1800.
First sale of lands west of the Great Miami, first Mondav in April,
1801.
tanner's STATION.
This station gave name to Tanner's Creek, and was situated opposite
the mouth of the creek on the site of Petersburg. The following account
of the station is from Collins' History of Kentucky: "Tanner's Station, on
the Ohio River, twenty-two miles below Cincinnati, on the site of the
present town of Petei'sburg, was settled by and named after Rev. John
Tanner, the first Baptist preacher in this part of Kentucky, certainly
before 1790. In April, 1785, a company from Pennsylvania, composed
of John Hindman, William West, John Simmons, John Seft, old Mr.
Carlin and their families cleared thirty or forty acres on the claim of Mr.
Tanner — the first clearing in Boone County, Ky. They remained there
a month or six weeks, then went to Ohio to make improvements, but did
not remain there. In 1790 John Tanner, a little boy of nine years, was
made prisoner by the Indians, and in 1791, an elder brother, Edward,
96 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
«
nearly fifteen (both sons of Rev. John Tannei'). Edward made his escape
two days after his capture and returned home. Except that the Indians
told Edward of their having taken John the year before, the latter was
not heard of by his friends for twenty-four years. He spent his life
among the Indians, and, in 1818, was employed by the United States
authorities at Sault Ste. Marie as an interpreter. The father removed in
1798 to New Madrid, Mo., and died there a few years after."
A confirmation of the very early date of the establishment of this
station is found in the journal of Maj. Denny at Fort Finney, who
records that on March 20, 1786, two of the people at "a station six miles
below us on the Kentucky side," had been attacked by the Indians, one of
them killed, and the other wounded.
MAJ. BYRd's stockade NEAR LAWRENCEBURGH.
Early in 1794 Maj. Byrd, with a battalion of troops of Gren.
Wayne's army erected a stockade on the west bank of the Great Miami,
two miles above Lawrenceburgh, where he I'emained until the treaty of
Greenville in August, 1795. The purpose of the stockade was to pi'otect
keel -boats with supplies for Wayne's army, which might descend the
Ohio and ascend the Great Miami as far as Fort Hamilton, and to pro-
tect the settlements on the east side of the Great Miami. It was in De-
cember, 1793, that Gen. Wayne built Fort Greenville. He detailed a
strong guard for the defense of Fort Hamilton, and when the army
went into winter quai'ters at Fort Greenville, he directed a force under
Maj. Byrd, known as the^Rowdy Regiment, to encamp on the fii-st high
ground on the west bank of the Great Miami, above its mouth, for the
purpose before mentioned. The site of the stockade is known as Rowdy
Camp to this day in the neighborhood of Lawrenceburgh. The trans-
portation of supplies for the army at Greenville from Cincinnati was a
business which made the track up the Mill Creek Valley, first opened by
Gen. St. Clair, a great thoroughfare for teams, citizens and soldiers.
Both citizens and soldiers were sometimes waylaid by the Indians, killed
and plundered. When there was sufficient stage of water in the Great
Miami the best way of transporting heavy articles to Fort Hamilton was
by keel boats.
PIONEER ADVENTURES AT THE MOUTH OF THE GREAT MIAMI.*
On Judge Symmes' second tour West, in the spring of 1790, among
other families accompanying him were three families of Guards — Alex-
ander, Gersham and Guard, cousins. Alexander, his wife, Hannah,
and their four children, settled at North Bend; and Gersham Guard and
*By Samuel Morriaoii.
PIONEER HISTORY. 97
family and his brother and family, settled some five miles east. Alex-
ander's children were Timothy, David and Bailey. At this period there
was one company of troops stationed at the Bend to guard the settle-
ments. The latter part of this year (1790) was spent in rearing cabins
and hunting to keep the family in venison. The next spring, 1791, their
colony was increased by the arrival of Capt. Joseph Hayes and family;
his two married sons, Job and Joseph Hayes, Jr., their wives and chil-
dren; his two Bons-in-law; Thomas Miller, Sr., wife and 'five children;
James Bennett and wife; Benjamin Walker, wife and three children;
Samuel, John, Joseph and their sister, Jane Walker, Isaac Polk, Garrett
Van Ness and Joseph Kitchell. This added thirteen effective men to
their colony. This entire colony remained as best they could upon their
scanty means, hunting, farming a little, while some of them had to go
to Big Bone Licks to manufacture salt.
In 1793 Capt. Joseph Hayes took a lease at the mouth of the Big
Miami River, and nearly the whole colony removed after having been
driven out of their cabins by the great flood of that year. At this place
they had previously erected their log-cabins, in the form of block-
bouses. Here they were joined by several other families, among them,
William Gerard, wife and two sons, Eli and Elias, and their daughter
(Mrs. John Crist), John White and wife. Alexander Gaard and family
packed up all their goods in a pirogue for the purpose of removing down
to the mouth of the Great Miami. Here they landed the pirogue and
Mrs. Guard and the children got out to walk, while Mr. Guard and
Capt. Hayes undertook to take the pirogue's load of goods around into
the Miami. The Miami being a little swollen, ran out with a strong
current. This bore the boat against the root of a sunken tree, upsetting
the boat and thereby losing all their goods, and came near drowning the
two men. They, however, succeeded in getting out. Thus Mr. Guard
and family were left without anything except what they had upon their
backs. Among other things they lost all of their money, which was in
silver. Mr. Guard procured a cabin and moved into it. In 1796 Mr.
Guard and family moved west of the Great Miami, and settled in that
beautiful bottom west of Elizabethtown, and from thence into Dearborn
County.
From 1793 to 1795 a battalion of troops under command of Maj.
Byrd were stationed at a stockade on the right bank of the Great Miami
River one and one-half miles from its mouth to guard these exposed settle-
ments. But notwithstanding this garrison and troops, the Indians occa-
sionally stepped in and murdered the whites and stole horses. In the
summer of 1794, John Tanner ran a keel- boat from his station to Fort
Hamilton for the purpose of supplying the troops at that place with
98 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
provisions; while rounding the island in the Great Miami, near the
mouth of Whitewater, the Indians in ambush fired on his canoe, killing
a colored man, his bowsman. That island ever since goes by the name
of Negro Island. Not long after the above occurrence, Eli Gerard, of
the Hayes Station, was sent over west of the Miami River to hunt their
horses, which had strayed off. Three Indians gave chase to him and
pursued him to the Miami River. Gerard plunged into the river and
swam across; when the Indians came upon the bank he was two-thirds
of the way over, and a tomahawk was thrown at him. Alexander Guard
died about 1810.
THE STORY OF BENJAMIN WALKER.*
From the earliest recollections of the writer he has heard various
reasons given for the removal of Mr. Walker to this county, and the se-
cluded life he led for a number of years in this unbounded wilderness.
These stories were so different that it left the mind in doubt as to the
truth of any, but all so far agreed that he had done some deed of daring
that required him to leave his home and native State, and after wander
ing hundreds of miles through an unknown country he found a stopping
place near the mouth of Laughery Creek, where he lived alone, hunting
for food, and on the constant lookout to avoid the dangers that surround-
ed him. All these, being told over at the winter fireside, surrounded his
name with a kind of romance that mystery aided to impress on our
youthful mind.
And while we would gladly have removed this impression of mystery,
we never took the liberty of referring to the subject in presence of any
of the family, but since we commenced writing these reminiscences of
pioneer life we have been assisted by the memoiy of others with interest-
ing facts that may be presented to the reader, and, among others, with a
reliable history of Benjamin Walker, and the occurrence that drove him
from wife and children.
As stated above, Mr. Walker lived alone, but in a few years others
came to the neighborhood, and, having decided to make this his home,
he got word to his wife to join him, which she did, with their three chil-
dren.
While living in this forest home they were often visited by an Indian
chief, called Captain Green. One day this Indian came into the cabin
with such an expression of rage on his countenance, and tomahawk in
hand, that the relator, then a little boy, hid behind his mother's chair.
The chief, addressing himself to Walker, said: "You kill Indian!"
Walker instantly sprang to his feet at this unexpected arraignment, and
*By George W. Lane.
PIONEER HISTORY. 99
bravely replied: "Yes, kill Indian — me kill two Indians! " and stopping
for a moment, as if to weigh the effect, added: "They killed my father!"
The chief threw down his tomahawk, and held out his hand — " Right,
right! — me kill, too!"
This led to an explanation of the affair, and the boy, who had quailed
before the savage eye of the wild man of the wilderness, heard the story
from his father's lips, and told it to John Cobb, Esq., a few years since,
while on a visit to Mr. James Walker, in Illinois, and Mr. Cobb to the
writer, who, with the assistance of George W. Chesman, will try and
place it in shape for the reader.
More than eighty years ago (1876) two Indians visited a village in
Pennsylvania, and, among other things, got to bragging how many
whites they had killed during the Revolutionary war, and showing a
stick with notches cut, they pointed to it, and said "so many." A bystander
noticed a few long marks, as a boy tallying a game, and wished to know
what they meant, and was told that the long marks were for officers, and
one of the longest was for Col. Walker. The mention of this name at-
tracted the attention of three young men, who had been left orphans
years before. The Indian continued: "Col. Walker no brave — he beg —
wanted to come home, " and with many taunts, and many particulars of
his death, these fatherleys boys listened in silence, but after the Indians
had gotten through and left town, these three held a council, and decided
that these Indians should never brag again of killing their father, and
started in pursuit.
After they had gone some distance one of the brothers hesitated and
advised them not to go any farther, but the two elder were determined
to go on and^ drove this one back. They went on and overtook the
Indians near a stream. Ben had with him a short sword, John a gun.
They had agreed upon a plan of attack when they got near enough.
The one with the gun was to shoot the Indian in advance, and Benja-
min was to attack the other with his sword. At the signal the gun did
its work, but not effectually; the Indian fell, but only wounded. Ben
raised his sword to strike, but as it came down it struck a limb and the
Indian started to ran. Walker after him. The Indian plunged into a
stream, but not alone. They struggled in the water for some time, un-
til the Indian drew a knife, which Walker wrenched from him and
killed him. By this time the wounded Indian had found his feet, and
seeing the contest in the water, tried to get there in time to assist his
friend, but his speed did not serve him, for when he got there Walker
had killed the first and soon dispatched the second. This over, a new
trouble met him, some of the citizens of the village, suspecting some-
thing might be on hand of the character related, had also sought the
100 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
lonely woods, and before young Walker had left the stream, came in
sight and spoke of arresting him. He told them not to undertake it,
as enough blood had been spilled that day, and they might take his
word for it that he would not be taken alive. They did take his word.
The young Walkers avoided the officers by hiding in a cellar for
nine days, when they took advantage of a storm and reached the woods,
then the mountains, then the Ohio Valley, the 3'ounger (John) stopping
in the western part of Ohio, and the hero of our story coming on to
Dearborn County, where he resided a number of years, improved a
valuable farm and was blessed with a large, worthy and respectable
family.
PROGRESS OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
The details of the history of the early settlements will be found in
the chapters of this work devoted to the township histories. A brief
resume of some of the very earliest settlements is here given. Some
of the dates here given are taken from the historical sketch prepared for
deposit in the corner-stone of the court house at Lawrenceburgh and
others from the best attainable sources of information.
Early in January, 1796, Adam Flake and family settled on South
Hogan Creek.
In February, 1796, Ephraim Morrison, a soldier of the Revolution,
built the first log-cabin and cut away the first trees on the bank of the
Ohio, just above the mouth of Hogan Creek, where Aurora now stands.
Early in May, 1796, Capt. Joseph Hayes and family and Thomas
Miller and family settled in the big bottom three and one half miles
north of Lawrenceburgh.
Sometime in 1798 Henry Hardin and family settled on the site of
Hardinsburgh ; William Gerard and family and George Crist settled one
mile above Hardinsburgh; Daniel Lynn, William Blue, David Blue and
Benjamin Walker settled on Laughery Creek; and William Allensworth,
Isaac Allen, Judge John Livingston, John Dawson and John White
made settlements. In the same year William Ross settled at the mouth
of Laughery Creek, but afterward moved further up that creek.
In 1797 Daniel Perrin and several persons named Cherry made
settlements.
^j In 1798 John Fulton and his son Samuel, with their families, arrived
at the site of Rising Sun; Robert and Jesse Drake settled on Grant's
Creek; Absalom Gray and family settled between Hogan and Laughery
Creeks; Amos, Henry and James Bruce settled on North Hogan Creek;
George Glen and George Grove settled in the vicinity of Hogan
Creek; Ebenezer Foot and family and Francis and Nicholas Cheek made
their settlements.
PIONEER HISTORY.
101
October 11, 1798, Israel Ludlow commenced to run ^and mark
out the first principal meridian, now the State line between Ohio and
Indiana. Benjamin Chambers and William Ludlow were the United
States surveyors who surveyed most of the land in Dearborn and Ohio
Counties.
In the spring of 1799, Benjamin Chambers carried the surveyor's
compass and measuring chain over the land on which Rising Sun is sit-
uated.
In 1799 Benjamin Avery located on land in Randolph Township
adjoining the northern limits of Rising Sun.
The foregoing does not purport to be a complete list of those who
settled in the two counties before the year 1800. The pioneers, however,
whose settlements date back to the last century, were comparatively few
in number. Those who located in the two counties before the first Gov-
ernment sale of lands, generally expected to secure their titles and save
the improvements they had made by purchasing of the Government the
tracts on which they had settled as soon as it was possible so to do. Yet
but few tracts were purchased in 1801, the first year in which sales were
made by the Government of lands west of the Great Miami. The earli-
est settlers usually established themselves near the Ohio or the larger
streams flowing into that river.
For some years after the whites made their homes in southeast Indiana
parties of Indians encamped occasionally near the settlements. They
usually behaved civilly, though they were much inclined toward horse
stealing. When Ephraim Morrison first settled here in 1796, the notori-
ous white savage, Simon Girty, was sometimes in this region. On one
occasion Blue Jacket borrowed a saddle from Morrison in order to
accompany Girty to Detroit. The saddle was brought back according to
promise. " During the Indian troubles which preceded the battle of
Tippecanoe, and continued throughout the last war with England, much
alarm was frequently caused by the movements of the Indians through-
out all the settlements in Indiana, and indeed at Cincinnati. Block-
houses were built in Dearborn and Ohio Counties for protection, and in
some cases families removed to more secure localities. The population
of Dearborn County did not increase rapidly until after the close of the
war of 1812.
February 2, 1798, Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, reported
to the United States Senate that no contracts had yet been made for sur-
veying the public lands below the Great Miami, but that surveys were
expected to be commenced during the coming season; and it appears that
surveys were commenced below the Great Miami before the close of that
year.
102 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
These lands were first offered for sale at Cincinnati on the first
Monday in April, 1801, under the direction of the register of the land
office and either the governor or secretary of the Northwest Territory,
The sales were to be made at public auction for three weeks, but no lands
were to be sold for less than $2 per acre. All lands remaining unsold at
the close of the three weeks of public sales, might be disposed of at
private sale at not less than $2 per acre. The lands were offered in
sections and half sections.
The public lands at first were sold on credit, the deferred payments
bearing interest. This system was a disastrous one. A great debt due
the Government accumulated to such proportions that it far exceeded the
ability of the people to pay. In 1820 the system was changed; all
lands were thenceforth sold for cash; the price was reduced to $1.25 per
acre, and lands could be bought in small tracts of eighty acres.
EARLY COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE AND PRICES.
In the Centinel of the Northwest Territory for January 17, 1795,
Elijah Craig, Jr., advertised from the "Mouth of the Kentucky" that he
would have boats ready by the 1st of February at that point to transfer
goods. Freight of goods to Frankfort would be 50 cents per 100; to
Sluke's warehouse, 75 cents, and Dick's River, $1.25.
The rates of freight on public property carried by private boats from
Fort Washington to Fort Hamilton up the Great Miami, were — for flour
per barrel $1.10; whisky, $1.33; corn, 26| cents per bushel, and all
other property 50 cents per 100 pounds. From Fort Washington to the
mouth of Stillwater, $3.30 for flour, $4 for whisky, 83^ cents for corn
and $1.60 per 100 for other articles.
At the time of the first settlements in Dearborn County, Cincinnati
was the principle market for the whole Miami country. It was then a
little village, shown by a census taken in 1795 to contain a population
of 500 persons, living in ninety-four log-cabins and ten frame houses.
A voyage to New Orleans was then made by flat-'boats in 100 days. For
the journey eastward, the primitive pack-horses were beginning to be
exchanged for the large and heavy old-time Pennsylvania wagons with
four and six horse bell teams. As a consequence of the difficulty attend-
ing commercial intercourse, every article the Miami farmer could produce
was low; every foreign article he was compelled to buy was relatively
high. Corn and oats were 10 or 12 cents a bushel, sometimes 8 cents;
wheat, 30 or 40 cents; beef, $1.50 to $2, and pork, $1 to $2 per 100.
On the other hand, here are some of the prices for foreign articles our
fathers paid at Cincinnati in 1799: coffee, 50 cents per pound; tea, 80
cents; pins, 25 cents a paper; ginghams, 50 cents per yard; fine linen,
PIONEER HISTORY. 105
$1 per yard; brown calico, 7 shillings 6 pence to 10 shillings; goslin
green and gray cotton velvet, 7 shillings 6 pence to 11 shillings 6 pence;
cassimere, $3 per yard; cotton stockings, 6 shillings to 15 shillings;
bonnet ribbon, $1 per yai'd; "thin linen for flour- sifters," 10 shillings
per yard; " small piece of ribbon for tying cues," 11 pence.
There was little encouragement for the furmer to raise more than he
could use at home. In 1806, a traveler wrcte that he had no conception
how the farmers can maintain themselves with flour at $3.50 per barrel,
and pork $2.50 per 100. The merchants, however, he said, made an
exorbitant profit. In four years, those who came from Baltimore or
Philadelphia with goods obtained on credit, had paid their debts and
lived at their ease. There was little use for corn even for cattle or hogs,
as the cattle found subsistence on the wild grasses of the woods, and
hogs lived and fattened on the mast of hickory nuts, acorns and beech
nuts.
PIONEER LIFE.
A truthful account of the mode of life among the early settlers of
the Ohio forests cannot fail to interest and instruct. As the backwoods
period recedes, its interest increases. It is to be regretted that more of
the traditions of the pioneers, giving homely but faithful pictures of the
every-day life of the early settlers have not been preserved. Their rec-
ollections of their journeys from the older States over the Alleghany
Mountains, the Hat-boat voyage down the Ohio, the clearing in the wil-
derness, the f.L-st winter in the rude cabin and the scanty stores of provis-
ions, the cultivation of corn among the roots and stumps, the cabin-
raisings and log-rollings, the home manufacturing of furniture and
clothing, the hunting parties and corn-huskings, their social customs
and the thousand scenes and novel incidents of life in the woods, would
form a more entertaining and instructive chapter than their wars with
the Indians or their government annals. .Far different was the life of
the settler on the Ohio from that of the frontiersman of to-day. The
railroad, the telegraph and the daily newspaper did not then bring the
comforts and luxuries of civilization to the cabin-door of the settler; nor
was the farm marked out with a furrow and made ready for cultivation
by turning over the sod.
The labor of opening a farm in a forest of large oaks, maples and
hickories, was very great, and the difficulty was increased by the thick
growing spice bushes. Not only were tx'ees to be cut down; the branch-
es were to be cut off from the trunk, and, with the undergrowth of
bushes, gathered together for burning. The trunks of the large trees
were to be divided and rolled into heaps and reduced to ashes. With
hard labor the unaided settlor could clear and burn an acre of land in
6
106 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
three weeks. It usually required six or seven years for the pioneer to
open a small farm and build a better house than his first cabin of round
logs. The boys had work to do in gathering the brush into heaps. A
common mode of clearing was to cut down all the trees of the diameter
of eighteen inches or less, clear off the undergrowth and deaden the
larger trees by girdling them with the ax, and allowing them to stand
until they decayed and fell. This method delayed the final clearing of
the land for eight or ten years, but when the trunks fell they were
usually dry enough to be burned into such lengths as to be rolled to-
gether.
The first dwellings of the settlers were cabins made of round logs
notched at the ends, the spaces between the logs filled in with sticks of
wood and daubed with clay. The roof was of clapboards held to their
places by poles reaching across the roof called weight-poles. The floor
was of puncheons, or planks split from logs, two or three inches in
thickness, hewed on the upper side. The fire-place was made of logs
lined with clay or with undressed stone, and was at least six feet wide.
The chimney was often made of split sticks plastered with clay. The door
was of clapboards hung on wooden hinges and fastened with a wooden
latch. The opening for the window was not unfrequently covered with
paper made more translucent with oil or lard. Such a house was built
by a neighborhood gathering with no tools but the ax and the frow, and
often was finished in a single day.
The furniture of the first rude dwellings was made of puncheons.
Cupboards, seats and tables were thus made by the settler himself.
Over the door was placed the trusty flint-lock rifle, next to the ax in use-
fulness to the pioneer, and near it the powder-horn and bullet-pouch.
Almost every family had its little spinning-wheel for flax and big
spinning-wheel for wool. The cooking utensils were few and simple,
and the cooking was all done at the fireplace. The long winter
evenings were spent in contentment, but not in idleness. There was
corn to shell and tow to spin at home, and the corn-huskings to attend
at the neighbors'. There were a few books to read, but newspapers were
rare. The buckeye log, because of its incombustibility, was valuable as
a back-log, and hickory-bark cast into the fire-place threw a pleasing
light over a scene of domestic industry and contentment.
Rev. William C. Smith, in his "Indiana Miscellanies," thus speaks
of the way of lighting these primitive homes: "During the day the door
of the cabin was kept open to afford light, and at night, through the
winter season, light was emitted from the fire-place, where huge logs
were kept burning. Candles and lamps were out of the question for a
few years. When these came into use they were purely domestic in their
PIONEER HISTORY. 107
manufacture. Candles were prepared by taking a wooden rod some ten
or twelve inches in length, wrapping a strip of cotton or linen around it,
then covering it with tallow pressed on with the hand. These 'sluts,'
as they were sometimes called, answered the purpose of a very large can-
dle, and afforded light for several nights. Lamps were prepared by
dividing a large turnip in the middle, scraping out the inside quite down
to the rind, then inserting a stick, say three inches in length, in the cen-
ter, so that it would stand upright. A strip of cotton or linen cloth was
then wrapped around it, and melted lard or deer's tallow was poured in
till the turnip rind was full, when the lamp was ready for use. By the
light of these during the long winter evenings the women spun and
sewed, and the men read when books could be obtained. When neither
lard nor tallow could be had, the large blazing fire supplied the needed
light. By these great fire places many cuts of thread have been spun,
many a yard of linsey woven, and many a frock and buckskin pantaloons
made."
The cabin-raising and the log-rolling were labors of the settlers, in
which the assistance of neighbors was essential and cheerfully given.
When a large cabin was to be raised, preparations would be made before
the appointed day, the trees would be cut down, the logs dragged in and
the foundation laid and the skids and forks made ready. Early in the
morning of the day fixed, the neighbors gathered from miles around; the
captain and corner-men were selected, and the work went on with bois-
terous hilarity until the walls were up and the roof weighted down.
The cabin of round logs was generally succeeded by a hewed log-
house more elegant in appearance and more comfortable. Indeed, houses
could be made of logs as comfortable as any other kind of building, and
were erected in such manner as to conform to the taste and means of all
descriptions of persons. For large families, a double cabin was common;
that is, two houses, ten or twelve feet apart, with one roof covering the
whole, the space between serving as a hall for various uses. Henry Clay,
in an early speech on the public lands, referred to the different kinds of
dwellings sometimes to be seen standing together, as a gratifying evidence
of the progress of the new States. "I have," said he, ''often witnessed
this gratifying progress. On the same farm you may sometimes behold,
standing together, the first rude cabin of round and unhewn logs, and
wooden chimneys; the hewed log-house chinked and shingled, with stone
or brick chimneys; and lastly, the comfortable stone or brick dwelling,
each denoting the different occupants of the farm or the several stages of
the condition of the same occupant. What other nation can boast of
such an outlet for its increasing population, such bountiful means of pro-
moting their prosperity and securing their independence?"
108 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
The wearing apparel was chiefly of home manufacture, The flax and
wool necessary for clothing were prepared and spun in the family, cotton
being comparatively scarce. Cax'ding wool by hand was common.
Weaving, spinning, dyeing, tailoring for the family were not unfre-
quently all carried on in the household. Not a few of the early settlers
made their own shoes. Wool dyed with walnut bark received the name
of butternut. Cloth made of mixed linen and wool, called linsej, or
linsey-woolsey, of a light indigo blue color, was common for men's wear.
A full suit of buckskin, with moccasins, was sometimes worn by a hunter,
but it was not common.
With the early settlers, almost the only modes of locomotion were on
foot and on horseback. The farmer took his corn and wheat to mill on
horseback; the wife went to market or visited her distant friends on
horseback. Salt, hardware and merchandise were brought to the new
settlements on pack-horses. The immigrant came to his new home not
unfx'equently with provisions, cooking utensils and beds packed on horses,
his wife and small children on another horse. Lawyers made the circuit
of their courts, doctors visited their patients, and preachers attended
their preaching stations on horseback.
The country was infested with horse-thieves. The unsettled condi-
tion of the country made the recovery of stolen horses very difficult. The
horse-stealing proclivity of the Indians was one of the chief causes of the
hatred of the early settlers toward the red men; but after all depredations
by the Indians had ceased, the farmers continued to suffer much from horse-
thieves, who were believed to be often organized into gangs. The great
value of the horse, and the difficulty of recovering one when run away,
caused the pioneer to look with naalignant hatred upon the horse-thief.
The early legislatures were composed almost entirely of farmers, and they
endeavored to break up this kind of larceny by laws inflicting severe pen-
alties.
The little copper distillery was to be found in most neighborhoods.
Rye and corn whisky was a common drink. It was kept in the cupboard
or on the shelf of almost every^family, and sold at all the licensed tav-
erns, both in the town and country. The earh^ merchants advertised
that good rye whisky, at 40 cents a gallon, would be taken in exchange
for goods. Houses and lots were offered for sale, flour or whisky taken in
full payment. It was a part of hospitality to offer the bottle to the vis-
itor. Whisky in a tin cup was passed around at the house-raising, the
log rolling, and in the harvest field. It is a mooted question not easily
settled whether intemperance was more common then than now. That
the spirituous liquors of those days were purer is admitted, but the notion
that they were less intoxicating seems not to have been well founded.
PIONEER HISTORY. 109
Excess in drinking then as now brought poverty, want and death. The
early settler with the purest of liquors could drink himself to death.
The breaking up of ground and cultivation of crops was attended
with difficulty. The bar share and shovel plows, and later the bull-plow
with wooden moldboard, husk collars and tugs, and rope traces and
withes; the sickle first, then the cradle and scythe, and threshing with a
flail, or treading out with horses, and cleaned by uieans of a sheet by the
aid of several persons, characterized the implements of farming.
It is not easy to describe the forest as it appeared in its primitive
luxuriance to the eyes of the pioneers. No woodland to-day, even in the
most unfrequented spot, wears the rich and exuberant garb which nature
gave it. Under the transforming power of civilization, the earth assumes
a new aspect. Even the woods and the streams are changed. Herbage
and shrubs which once grew luxuriantly in our forests have been eaten
out by cattle, until they can only be found in the most secluded and in-
accessible places. Trees cut down are succeeded by others of a different
growth.
The buffalo and elk, probably never numeroiis in this vicinity, had
disappeared before the approach of the white man, but the bear, the deer,
the wolf, the panther, the wildcat, the otter, the beaver, the porcupine,
the wild turkey, the rattlesnake, racer, moccasin and copperhead of the
fauna, which have now disappeared, remained in greater or less numbers
for some years after the occupancy by the whites. The streams were in-
fested with leeches. Swine were the chief means of the destruction of
poisonous snakes.
Wolves were so numerous and destructive to sheep that premiums
were provided for killing them. Countless numbers of squirrels were to
be found in the woods, and unceasing vigilance was required on the part
of the settler to protect his corn-fields from their ravages. They some-
times passed over the country in droves, traveling in the same direction.
These animals were a nuisance, and were too common to be regarded as
valuable for food.
Other kinds of game wei-e abundant. For some years the red deer
were as numerous as cattle to day. Wild turkeys could be shot or en-
trapped in great numbers. When mast was abundant, a drove of more
than 100 wild turkeys, all large and fat, might be found in the near
vicinity of the settlements, and when mast was scarce large numbers
would sometimes come to the barn-yards for grain. The rivers abounded
with fish.
The early immigrants may be described as a bold and resolute, rather
than a cultivated people. It has been laid down as a general truth that
a population made up of immigrants will contain the hardy and vigorous
110 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
elements of character in a far greater proportion than the same number
of persons born upon the soil and accustomed to tread in the footsteps of
their fathers. It required enterprise and resolution to sever the ties which
bound them to the place of their birth, and, upon their arrival in the
new country, the stern face of nature and the necessities of their condi-
tion made them bold and energetic. Individuality was fostered by the
absence of old familiar customs, family alliances and the restraints of old
social organizations. The early settlers were plain men and women of
good sense, without the refinements which luxury brings and with great
contempt for all shams and mere pretense.
A majority of the early settlers belonged to the middle class. Few
were, by affluence, placed above the necessity of labor with their hands,
and few were so poor that they could not become the owners of small
farms. The mass of the settlers were the owners in fee simple of at least'
a quarter of a section of land, or 160 acres. Many possessed a half sec-
tion or a section. After the settlements were begun, few persons owned
land in large tracts of two or more thousand of acres; while the poorest
immigrant, if industrious and thrifty, could lease land on such terms that
he would soon become the owner of a small farm in five or six years.
The backwoods age was not a golden age. However pleasing it may
be to contemplate the industry and frugality, the hospitality and general
sociability of the pioneer times, it would be improper to overlook the less
pleasing features of the pictui-e. Hard toil made men old before their
time. The means of culture and intellectual improvement were inferior.
In the absence of the refinements of literature, music and the drama, men
engaged in rude, coarse and sometimes brutal amusements. Public
gatherings were often mari-ed by scenes of drunken disorder and fighting.
The dockets of the courts show a large proportion of cases of assault and
battery and afi'ray. While some of the settlers had books and studied
them, the mass of the people had little time for study. Post roads and
postoffices were few, and the scattered inhabitants rarely saw a news paper
or read a letter from their former homes. Their knowledge of politics
was obtained from the bitter discussions of opposing aspirants for office.
The traveling preacher was their most cultivated teacher. The traveler
from a foreign country or from one of the older States was compelled to
admit that life in the backwoods was not favorable to amenity of manners.
One of these travelers wrote of the Western people in 1802: "Their gen-
erals distill whisky, their colonels keep taverns and their statesmen feed
pigs."
CIVIL ORGANIZATION. Ill
CHAPTER VI.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION.
Organization of Dearborn County— The Older Counties of which it
Formed a Part— Virginia Counties— Changes of Boundaries-
First Officers and First Courts— Curious Court Incident— Early
Administration of Justice— Division ok Dearborn and Formation
OF Ohio County— First Officers and First Courts of Ohio County
—Dearborn County Buildings— Ohio County Buildings.
DEARBORN COUNTY was formed by proclamation of William Henry
Harrison, governor of Indiana Territory, March 7, 1803, and was
named in honor of Maj.-Gen. Henry Dearborn, at that time Secretary of
War under President Jefferson. As originally formed, it embraced all
the territory bounded by the Ohio State line on the east, the old Indian
bouodary line on the west and north, and the Ohio River on the south,
and included all of Ohio County, nearly all of Switzerland, and por-
tions of several counties along the State line up to Fort Recovery.
The reader who desires to know the full history of his county, will be
interested in knowing the older counties, of which Dearborn and Ohio
were a part. From 1790 until 1798 these two counties formed a part of
Knox County, with the seat of justice at Vincennes. June 22, 1798,
Gov. St. Clair issued a proclamation, changing the western boundary of
Hamilton County from the Great Miami River to the Indian boundary
line, running from the mouth of the Kentucky River to Fort Recovery;
from that date these counties were a part of Hamilton County, with the
seat of justice at Cincinnati until April 30, 1802, when Congress estab-
lished the present western boundary line of Ohio. From April 30,1802,
until January 24, 1803, they were under no county organization what-
ever. From January 24, 1803, to March 7, 1803, a part of Clark County,
with the seat of justice at Jeffersouville.
But at still earlier dates, this territory had been made a part of polit-
ical divisions called counties. During the Revolution, this region would
have been marked on a map of the North American Colonies as a part of
Virginia, whose extensive domain, making her the mother of States as
well as of Presidents, reached to the Mississippi. Out of this broad ter-
ritory vast counties were formed. The county of Kentucky included the
whole of the present State of that name. In October, 1778, Virginia, by
112 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
statute, declared that: "All the citizens of the commonwealth of Vir-
ginia, who are already settled or who shall hereafter settle on the west-
ern side of the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct county, which shall
be called Illinois County." This territory, then, once formed a part of
the vast western county of Virginia called Illinois.
But, going back a few years further, we find this region included in
a county of still more vast extent. South of the Natural Bridge, between
the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, and intersected by the James River,
is a county of Virginia, with Fincastle as its seat of justice, named
Botetourt, in honor of Norborne Rerkeley, Lord Botetourt, a conspic-
uous actor in American colonial history, and governor of Vir-
ginia. That county was established in 1769, and was bounded on
the east by the Blue Ridge, on the west by the Mississippi, and com-
prised Western Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin
and Minnesota. Fincastle then, as now, was the county seat.
The following curious provision is fou.nd in the act of Virginia,
creating Botetourt County:
And whereas, the people situated on the Mississippi, in the said county of
Botetourt, will be very remote from the court liouse, and must necessarily become a
separate county as soon as their numbers are sufficient — which probably will happen
in a short time: Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid (House of Bur-
gesses) that the inhabitants of that part of the said county of Botetourt, which lies
on the said waters, shall be exempted from the payment of any levies to be laid by
the said county court, for the purpose of building a court house and prison for said
county.
The boundary between Jefferson and Dearborn Counties, established
by act of November 23, 1810, commenced on the Ohio River at the mouth
of Log Lick, now in Switzerland County; thence to the old Indian
boundary; and thence with said boundary to the northeast corner of the
Grousland Purchase.
A portion of the above territory was stricken from Jefferson and
attached to Dearborn by act of September 7, 1814, viz.: All that portion
of Jefferson County which lies east of the old Indian boundary and north
of the line dividing Sections 19 and 30, Town 4, Range 3 west. Also
from a point beginning where the line between Townships Nos. 6 and 7
north. Range 13 east, intersects the old Indian boundary; thence with
said line west to the corner of Sections 32 and 33, Town 7, Range
12 east; thence north to the northwest corner of Section 21, Town 10,Range
12; thence east on what is now the line between Franklin and Ripley
Counties to the old Indian boundary line; thence southwardly with said
line to the point of beginning.
The above last described tract was taken from Dearborn to form a
part of Ripley County by the act of December 27, 1816.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION. 113
In 1814 the line between Sections 19 and 30, Town 4, Range 3 west
was extended east to the Ohio River and now forms the north boundary
of Switzerland County.
By aot of January 7, 1845, all that part of Dearborn County which
lies south of Laughery Greek was attached to Ohio County, leaving Dear-
born with its present boundary lines, viz. : Beginning at the confluence
of Laughery Creek with the Ohio River; thence up said creek with its
meanders to the old Indian boundary line; thence with said line north-
wardly to the line dividing fractional townships Nos. 8 and 9; thence
east to the first principal meridian, being the Ohio State line; thence
south to the Ohio River; thence down said river to the place of beginning.
FIRST OFFICERS AND COURTS.
On the same day that Dearborn County was organized,. Gov. William
Henry Harrison appointed the following named persons justices, to hold
the courts of common pleas, the^ courts of general quarter sessions of
the peace, and the orphan's court under the ordinance and laws for the
government of the Territory, viz. : Benjamin Chambers, Jabez Percival,
Barnet Hulick, John Brownson, Jeremiah Hunt, Richard Stevens, Will-
iam Major and James McCarty. Other civil officers appointed at the
same time were Samuel C.Vance, clerk of courts, and James Dill, recorder.
The commissions of all the officers dated from March 7, 1803.
^ August 15, 1803, the following persons were appointed officers of
the militia of Dearborn Cointy, viz.: William Hall, Samuel Fulton,
Daniel Lynn, Barnet Hulick and Jeremiah Johnston, captains; William
Standiford, William Spencer, William Cheek, James Hamilton and
William AUensworth, lieutenants; Gersham Lee, Thomas Fulton,
Michael Flake, William Thompson and Ja,m£is Buchanan, ensigns.
August 23, 1808, David Lamphere was commissioned sheriff, James
Hamilton, recorder, vice James Dill, resigned, and Jonathan White,
coroner.
Tl;ie first session of the court of general quarter sessions of the
peace is believed to have commenced oq the first Monday of September,
1803. In the proclamation of the governor establishing the county, the
courts were directed to be held in the town of Lawrenceburgh, which had
been laiJ out in the spring of 1802. Dr. Jabez Percival, one of the
judges, had built a double log-cabin, and in it the first courts were held.
A curious incident, illustrative of the primitive mode of administer-
ing justice, is related on the highest authority as having occurred in an
early court of this county. An altercation arising between an unman-
ageable and contemptuous witness and one of the judges, the witness
sustained his side of the argument by seizing a clapboard and striking at
114 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
the judge. The judge fended off the lick which was aimed at his head
with his arm. Both clapboard and the judge's arm were broken by the
sudden and violent contact of the two. This was considered a contempt
of court, and the witness was ordered to jail, but there was no jail, and
as the most feasible means of carrying out the sentence of imprisonment,
his feet and hands were tied, he was laid along the ground and a section
of worm fence was built up over him, the lower rail just touching his
neck. In this position he was kept for some hours, by which time it is
fair to conclude he was possessed by a realizing sense of the inconven-
ience attending a disrespectful treatment of the court.
CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COURTS.
Hon. Oliver H. Smith, who practiced extensively in all the counties
of southeastern Indiana, beginning in 1820, thus describes the adminis-
tration of justice:
" The county was new, sparsely settled, and being on the Western
frontier, the towns and villages were filled with Indians trading their
peltries, wild game and moccasins ornamented with the quills of the por-
cupine, with the settlers, for calicoes, whisky, powder, lead, beads and
such other articles as met their fancy. The population of the country
embraced by the circuit was a hardy, fearless and generally honest but
more or less reckless people, such as are usually to be found advancing
upon the frontiers from more civilized life, and consequently there were
more collisions among them, more crimes committed calling for the action
of the criminal courts than is common in older settled and more civil -
ized parts of the older States.
"The judiciary system at the time referred to, was, like the country,
in its infancy. The circuit court was composed of a presiding judge,
elected by the Legistature, who presided in all the courts in the circuit,
and two associate judges, elected in each county by the people. These
'side judges,' as they were then called, made no pretensions to any par-
ticular knowledge of the law, but still they had the power to overrule the
presiding judge and give the opinion of the court, and sometimes they
even 'outguessed' the president, giving the most preposterous reasons
imaginable for their decisions, as, in one instance, that of a writ of
sciy^e facias to revive a judgment, would not lie unless it was sued out
within a year and a day. The decision oE the associates was affirmed in
the supreme court, for other reasons, of course. The court houses were
either frame or log buildings, arranged to hold the court in one end and
the grand jury in the other, the petit jury being accommodated in some
neighboring outbuildings. The clerks had very little qualification for
their duties; still they were honest, and the most of them could write
CIVIL ORGANIZATION. 115
more legibly than Rufus Choate, United States Senator. The sheriffs
were elected by the people as they are now, and seem to have been se-
lected as candidates on account of their fine voices to call the jurors and
witnesses from the woods from the doors of the court house, and their
ability to run down and catch offenders. The most important personages
in the country, however, were the young lawyers, universally called
'squires' by the old and young, male and female. Queues were much in
fashion, and nothing was more common than to see one of these young
'squires' with a wilted rorum hat, that had once been stiffened with glue
in its better days, upon his head, from the back part of which hung a
cue three feet long, tied from head to tip with an eel skin, walking in
evident superiority, in his own estimation, among the people in the court
yard, sounding the public mind as to his prospects as a candidate for the
Legislature. There were no caucuses or conventions then. Every can-
didate brought himself out and ran upon his own hook. If he got beat,
as the most of them did, he had nobody to blame but himself for becom-
ing a candidate;, still, he generally charged it upon his friends for not
voting for him, and the next season found him once more upon the track,
sounding his own praises.
" The court rooms in those days were prepared and furnished with
much simplicity, and yet they seemed to answer all the purposes abso-
lutely necessary to the due administration of justice. The building gen-
erally contained two rooms, the court room being the larger, at one end
of which there was a platform elevated some three feet for the judges,
with a long bench to seat them. These benches were very substantial in
general, sufficient to sustain the most weighty judges, yet on one occa-
sion the bench gave way, and down came three fat, aldermanly judges on
the floor. One of them, qaite a wag, seeing the 'squires' laughing, re-
marked: 'Gentlemen, this is a mighty weak bench.' The bar had their
benches near the table of the clerk, and the crowd was kept back by a
long pole fastened with withes at the ends. The crowds at that day
thought the holding of a court a great affair; the people came hundreds
of miles to see the judges and hear the lawyers 'plead,' as they called it.
On one occasion there came on to be tried before the jury an indictment for
an assault and battery against a man for pulling the nose of another who
had insulted him. The court room was filled to suffocation, the two as-
sociate judges were on the bench; the evidence had been heard and pub-
lic expectation was on tiptoe. All was silent as death, when the young
'squire,' afterward Judge Charles H. Test, arose and addressed the court:
'If the court please — . ' He was here interrupted by Judge Mitchell from
the bench, 'Yes, we do please. Go to the bottom of the case, young
man; the people have come in to hear the lawyers plead.' The young
116 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Squire, encouraged by the kind response of the judge, proceeded to ad-
dress the jury some three hours, in excited eloquence, upon the great
provocation his client had received to induce his docile nature to bound
over all legal barriers and take the prosecutor by the nose. All eyes were
upon him, and as he closed Judge Winchall roared out, 'Capital! I did
not think it was in him!' The jury returned a verdict of 'not guilty'
amid the rapturous applause of the audience. Court adjourned, and
the people returned home to tell their children that they had heard the
lawyers 'plead.' "
DIVISION or DEARBORN AND FORMATION OF OHIO COUNTY.
The question of the division of Dearborn County was agitated from
an early period.' Eising Sun, laid out in 1814, was ambitious to be a
county seat from the first, and worked faithfully and earnestly with that
end in view, until success crowned its efforts. As early as 1817, before
the State of Indiana was a year old, Col. A. C. Pepper, it is said, went
to Corydon, the capital of the State, to obtain an act from the Legislature
organizing a new county with Rising Sun its seat of justice, but he was
unsuccessful.
Lawrenceburgh was the seat of justice of Dearborn County from the
organization of the county, and being situated on the eastern side of the
county about midway between the northern and southern boundaries, was
unwilling to have the shape of the county changed, lest the county seat
should be removed. The friends of a new county, finding they were not
strong enough to effect a division of Dearborn, resorted to strategy and
advocated a removal of the county seat to a point nearer the geographical
center, and September 26, 1836, Wilmington became the seat of justice.
Lawrenceburgh having lost the county seat was now not so much opposed
to the formation of a new county, provided the county seat could be
brought back to her.
An alliance was formed between the friends of division and the relo-
cation of the county seat, and in 1843 members of the Legislature were
chosen from the county favorable to both these projects. As an indica-
tion of the unanimity of sentiment on the part of the voters of Randolph
Township it may be stated that George P. Buell, the candidate for senator
in favor of division and relocation, received in that township 501 votes,
while Charles Dashiell, the candidate opposed to these measures, received
five votes.
The act organizing Ohio County and removing the seat of justice of
Dearborn County from Wilmington to Lawrenceburgh pasi^ed the House
by a vote of sixty-six to twenty-three, December 31, 1843; it passed the
Senate, January 3, 1844, and was approved by the governor January 4,
CIVIL ORGANIZATION. 117
1844. The act is a long one, but on aceount of its importance we give
its most important sections:
AN ACT TO ORGANIZE A NEW COUNTY OUT OF THE COUNTY OP DEARBORN, AND
RELOCATE THE COUNTY SEAT THEREOF. APPROTED JANUARY 4, 1844.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Qeneral Assembly of the State of Indiana,
That from and after the first day of March next, all that part of Dearborn County,
within the following bounds, to-wit: Beginning on the Ohio River on the section
line between fractional sections number twenty-five and thirty-six, in Town four.
Range one west, thence west with said line to the northwest corner of section num-
ber thirty-two; thence south to the northwest corner of Section number five, Town
three, Range one; thence west to the range line between Range one and Range
two; thence south to the line dividing Switzerland and Dearborn Counties; thence
with said line east to the Ohio River; thence up said river to the place of begin-
ning, shall constitute the county of Ohio.
Sec. 2. That Martin R. Green, of the county of Switzerland, Joseph Bennet,
of the county of Franklin, and James Myers, of the county of Ripley, be and
they are hereby constituted and appointed commissioners to permanently locate the
seat of justice of said county. The commissioners, or a majority of them, shall
convene in the town of Rising Sun, in said county of Ohio, on the second Monday
in April next, or as soon thereafter as a majority of them shall agree.
Sec. 5. That the circuit and other courts of said county of Ohio shall be
held at Rising Sun until suitable buildings can be erected at the county seat, after
which the courts shall be held at the county seat of said county.
Sec. 13. That from and after the first day of April next the seat of justice of
the county of Dearborn shall be, and the same is, hereby removed and permanently
located in the town of Lawrenceburgh, in said county of Dearborn.
Sec. 15. That all officers whose duty it shall be to keep their said offices at the
seat of justice in said county of Dearborn shall be, and are hereby required to
remove and keep their said offices at the town of Lawrenceburgh on or before the
said first day of April next; that from and after the said first day of April (1844) all
public business, which shall be required by law to be transacted at the seat of jus-
tice in said county of Dearborn, shall be performed and transacted at the court
house in said town of Lawrenceburgh.
Sec. 16. It shall be the duty of the corporation of the said town of Lawrence-
burgh to give bond with good and sufficient security, to be approved of by the
county commissioners of said county, or any one of them, in a penalty of any
amount lie or they may require, not exceeding, however, the penalty of ten thou-
sand dollars, payable to the State of Indiana, conditioned that the corporation of
said town of Lawrenceburgh shall, within one year from and after the said first day
of April, 1844, fit up and repair the court house and jail in said town of Lawrence-
burgh, and build a clerk's office, recorder's office, and auditor's office in said town,
all of which shall be equal in point of convenience and durability to those already
erected and built in the town of Wilmington; and that said corporation will furnish
suitable rooms for holding said offices in said county at the expense of the same,
until said public buildings shall be erected and refitted as aforesaid.
Sec. 17. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
An examination of the first section of the foregoing act will show
that the original boundaries of the county were not the same as at pres-
ent. Ohio County is now the smallest county in Indiana, containing a
118 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
little over eighty-five acd one-half square miles. As originally formed
it comprised only a portion of Eandolph Township, and contained less
than eighteen square miles. Probably a smaller county was never
formed in the United States. It remained thus, however, only for one
year and three days. January 7, 1845, by act of the Legislature, all
of Dearborn County lying south of Laughery Creek was attached to Ohio
County, leaving both Dearborn and Ohio Counties with their present
boundaries.
The old constitution of Indiana provided that " the General Assem-
bly, when they lay off any new county, shall not reduce the old county or
counties from which the same shall be taken to a less extent than 400
square miles." It was thought that Dearborn had been reduced to 400
square miles of territory, and that this would effectually bar any divis-
ion of the county, but a close survey made at a time of low water in
the Ohio showed a surplus. Out of that surplus Ohio County was first
formed. It was out of the power of the Legislature in the act creating
the new county to have made it any larger. As the constitution did not
forbid the changing of the boundaries of counties already established, at
the next session Laughery Creek was made the boundary between Ohio
and Dearborn.
Thus after a long and hard fought contest, Rising Sun became a seat
of justice. The people of that village built the county buildings free of
expense to the county. They obligated themselves that if Rising Sun
was made the seat of justice of the proposed new county, the cost of
erecting the public buildings should not fall upon the tax payers of the
county. The commissioners appointed to locate the seat of justice met
at Rising Sun on Monday, April 8, 1844, and selected the site upon which
the public buildings now stand, the ground having been donated for that
purpose by Col. A. C. Pepper. The occasion was one of public rejoic-
ing, and a dinner was given to the commissioners at which a number of
citizens were present.
The first election of county offices in Ohio County was held May 1,
1844, when the following named persons were chosen: Probate judge,
Samuel Jelly; associate judges, Samuel Fulton and Thomas H. Gilmore;
county clerk, James H. Pepper; recorder, William T. Lambdin; treas-
urer, John B. Craft; auditor, Samuel F. Covington; commissioners, John
Bennett, William H. Powell and Morris Merrill; coroner, Alexander C.
Campbell. As the constitution provided for the election of coroner at
the regular election held in August and at no other time, Mr. Campbell
was not legally elected, nor was ho commissioned. Another special elec-
tion was ordered to be held June 1, for the purpose of choosing an
assessor and school commissioner, on which day Martin Stewart was
CIVIL ORGANIZATION. 119
elected assessor, and Nathan R. Steadman, school commissioner. William
Lanius had been commissioned sheriff by the governor for the purpose
of organizing the county, but in his absence Ohio County was organized
by his deputy, Samuel F. Covington. At the annual election, vv^hich took
place on the first Monday of August, the following officers were chosen:
Sheriff, James B. Smith; coroner, Theophilus Jones. The board of
commissioners at their first session made the following appointments:
County surveyor, Henry James; inspector of elections, Charles W.
Mountz.
The first court held in Ohio County was the probate court, which
commenced its sitting in the then Old School Presbyterian Church on
Second Street, Monday, August 12, 1844. Samuel Jelley was probate
judge, and James H. Pepper, clerk.
On the same day a special session of the commissioners was held in the
county clerk's office, in a building then standing on the east corner of
Main Street and the alley between First and Market Streets.
The first term of the circuit court was held in the church already
mentioned on Second Street, beginning on Monday, December 4, 1844,
and continuing two days. Miles C. Eggleston was president judge, and
Samuel Fulton and Thomas H. Gilmore, associate judges; John Dumont,
prosecuting attorney; James H. Pepper, clerk, and James B. Smith,
sheriff.
DEAKBOKN COUNTY BUILDINGS.
First Jail. — The first jail of the county, erected in 1804, was built
of logs, and was located on the public square. In 1806 William Cook
was the jailor, and resided in the jail building.
First Court House. — The first court house stood on the site of the
present temple of justice, and was built in 1810. It was a two-story
brick building, the court room being on the ground floor, with jury room
above. This building was destroyed by fire, March 5, 1826.
Second Court House. — The interior only of the first court house hav-
ing been consumed by fire, the second building, for the use of the courts,
was constructed on the same foundation and with the same walls. In
May, 1827, the county commissioners appointed Jesse Hunt, James W.
Hunter and George H. Dunn commissioners to superintend the construc-
tion of the building, which it appears was not ready for occupancy until
the fall or winter of 1828.
Second Jail. — The second county prison must have been built at the
same time that the second court house was constructed, although there is
no separate mention made of it in the commissioners' proceedings. The
men named above as commissioners appointed to superintend the erec-
tion of the second court house were to superintend the erection of two
120 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
public buildings. No description of the building is given or mention
made of its builders in the records that we were able to find. In the
State Gazetteer of 1833 it is referred to as a stone jail. It was two
stories high, and occupied a position nearly on the site of the present
jail.
Third Court House. — On the removal of the county seat from Law-
renceburgh to Wilmington, in 1835, the public buildings — a court house
and jail — were erected in that village by the citizens thereof and vicinity
at a cost of about $4,000. The court house, still standing, is a two-story
brick, in size about 42x48 feet, and is the property of the lodge of
Masons of that village.
Third Jail. — The third jail, as stated above, was erected at Wilming-
ton. It was a substantial building, and stood upon the public square;
both it and court house were donations, and were accepted by the
county commissioners, March 9, 1836. The jail was occupied only a
few years when it was destroyed by fire.
Fourth Jail.— In March, 1840, a contract was let, for the erection of
the second jail at Wilmington, by the county commissioners to Timothy
Kimball for $1,700. At the final settlement made with Mr. Kimball,
he was allowed $1,939.77.
Fifth Jail. — The fifth county prison was erected on the public square
at Lawrenceburgh in 1848, the contract having been let to Timothy
Kimball in December, 1847, for $2,600. In August, 1848, the build-
ing was received and accepted by the commissioners, at which time they
allowed Mr. Kimball $210 extra " for the building of a wall above the
high water mark of 1832."
Sixth Jail and Sheriff's Residence. — The sixth and present jail was
built in 1858-59. The sheriff's residence — a two-story brick building —
fronts on High Street, with jail to the rear, and stands in the south cor-
ner of the public square. The work was let by departments to various
persons, and cost in round number.s $8,600.
Fourth Qdurt House. — The order for the erection of the present
magnificent/court house of Dearborn County was passed by the board of
county commissioners, March 16, 1870, and George Kyle, of Vevay, in
Switzerland County, Ind. , was selected as architect, April 13, 1870, to
prepare plans and specifications, and June 15, 1870, the plans were sub-
mitted by the architect and adopted by the board. An order was passed
for the removal of the old building, and the work of demolition
commenced June 16, 1870, the board having accepted the proposition of
the commou council of the city of Lawrenceburgh, tendering the use of
Odd Fellows' Hall free of charge for the use of a court house during the
erection of the new building, the same was designated as the place of
holding courts.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION. 121
Proposals for the erection of this building were advertised to be
received until July 15, and July 16, 1870, the contract was awarded
for the cut stonewoi'k to Francis L. Farman, of Indianapolis, and the
remainder of the work to T. J. Shannon, of Lawrenceburgh, and July
17, the work of excavation was commenced.
The stone used in the construction of the building was quarried at
Elliottsville, Monroe Co., Ind. , and is a pearl-gray limestone of fine
grain, giving forth a distiact, ringing, metallic sound, when struck by
by another hard substance. The style of architecture is the Corinthian —
having a portico in front of the Corinthian order; the flank and rear are
also embeliahed by projections and pediments upon which the same order
is developed.
The dimensions are seventy-three feet three inches fronting on High
Street, and running back one hundred and one feet three inches, exclusive
of projections. The portico is thirteen feet three inches by forty-six feet
eight inches. The perpendicular height from the base line to the
comb of the roof is sixty-seven feet. The building was completed at a
cost of about $100,000 and stands to-day one of the finest court houses
in Indiana.
The corner-stone of the present court house in Lawrenceburgh was
laid with imposing ceremonies April, 13, 1871 in the presence of fully
5,000 spectators. The various orders of Masons, Odd Fellows, Druids,
Good Templars and other benevolent and religious societies of the county
were fully represented. Louis Jordan, Esq., of Indianapolis, was the
orator of the occasion. The following is a list of the articles deposited
in the corner-stone:
Histories of Masonic Lodges — Wilmington Lodge No. 158; Law-
renceburgh Chapter; Lawrenceburgh Lodge; Burns Lodge No. 55; Har-
rison Lodge No. 17; Aurora Lodge No. 51; Hansellman Commandeiy,
of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Histories of Odd Fellows — Advance Lodge; Allemania Lodge No.
334, of Aurora; Teutonia Lodge No. 289, of Lawrenceburgh; Bethlehem
Encampment No. 3, of Aurora; Union Lodge No. 8, of Lawrenceburgh;
Chosen Friends Lodge No. 13, of Aurora.
Histories of Druids — Aurora Grove; Grand Grove of Indiana; Grand
Grove of the United States; Columbia and Teutonia Chapters No. 2, of
Lawrenceburgh; Order of Harugari No. 223, of Lawrenceburgh.
Histories of Keligious Societies — American Protestant Association, of
Lawrenceburgh; St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Aid Society, of Lawrence-
burgh; Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceburgh; Lawrenceburgh Baptist
Church of Christ; German Evangelical Zion's Church, of Walnut
Street, Lawrenceburgh; Aid Society to Indigent Sick of G. E. Z.
Church, of Lawrenceburgh. 7
122 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Histories of Corporations, Associations, etc. — Deutschen Bau Verein,
No. 1, of Lawrenceburgh; Lawrenceburgb Liedertafel; City of Aurora;
City of Lawrenceburgb; Dearborn County Agricultural Society; Dear-
born County; First National Bank, of Lawrenceburgb; Cocbran Forum;
Dearborn County Medical Society.
Publications — Democratic Register, six copies, including dates
of April 7 and 14, 1871; Lawrenceburgb Press, April 13, 1871;
Dearborn Independent, April 13, 1871; Rising Sun Recorder, April 8,
1871; Political Beacon, October 7, 1837; Cbillicothe Advertiser, 1850;
Dearborn Democrat, 1838, and otber old papers relating to Dearborn
County, contributed by Dr. George Sutton, of Aurora; Milliner's Pam-
phlet of Fashion Plates, for April, 1871, deposited by Mrs. Margaret
Beggs, of Lawrenceburgb.
Miscellaneous — Samples of United States Postage Stamps in use
in 1871; 25 cent note of Petersburgb, Ky., Milling Company, 1817;
$1 note of second municipality of New Orleans, 1839; One one-
ninth of $1 continental currency, issued by the colony of Maryland,
1775; 1 cent coin, 1786; 1 cent coin, 1777; L C. & L. R. R. switch
key, deposited by Peter Martenstein; photograph of commission
of Azel Fitch, as captain in Colonial Army, dated March 24, 1760,
issued by Thomas Fitch, captain general and governor of the colony of
Connecticut, deposited by D. W. C. Fitch; samples of copper and silver
coins of United States, 1871 ; biographical sketch of the late J. H.
Brower, M. D.
The Asylum for the Poor. — About twelve miles northwest of Law-
renceburgb is located the County Infirmary. The building is in crucial
form, 104 feet in width and 150 feet in length, and two-stories high,
having sixty-four rooms. The building is neat and substantial, well
arranged for the convenience of the inmates, is heated by steam,
and makes a pleasant home for the unfortunate of the county. Its
kitchen and dining room arrangements, together with the offices and
airy sitting rooms, give it a home like appearance and it may be truly
said that the county has secured a valuable home for those depending for
their support upon the county. The building was completed in the fall
of 1882, costing $21,754. The original contract price was $15,840, to
which was added $500 for extras. In 1881 the farm comprised about
300 acres of land, the proceeds of which for the year 1880 amounted to
about $2,000. The architect of the building was Capt. Alex Pattison,
and the contractor and builder was Seth Piatt, both of Dearborn County.
At the time of the completion of the building, the asylum and farm
were under the management of Thomas Duncan, who had had charge
of it for several years. The inmates then numbered forty.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION. 123
The asylum was first established in 1835, in July of which year the
contract was let to William Brown for the carpenter work for $920.
The stone and mason work was to cost $650.
About fifty acres of ground had been purchased in the spring of 1833
of Phoebe Pate, lying in Section 10, Township 5, Range 2, for the pur-
pose of erecting an asylum. The amount paid for it was $220. That
farm was sold in 1883, for $2,600 and the present farm purchased in the
spring of the same year of C. F. Wood for $3,840.
COUNTY BUILDINGS OF OHIO COUNTY.
The court house square on which the temple of justice and jail of
Ohio County are located is situated well up in the city from the river,
and is bounded by Mulberry Street, Broad Street, Main Street and an
alley. The ground was donated to the county by Col. Abel C. Pepper,
the deed of conveyance being made by Col. Pepper and wife to the
county commissioners, with the provision that should the town of Rising
Sun cease to be a county seat, the lot should become the property of the
president and trustees of Rising Sun. This deed of conveyance bears
date of December 11, 1845.
The Court House. — This, a substantial two-story brick building,
stands on the center part of the square facing Main Street, amid a
grove of beautiful shade trees; the building is fifty feet deep, with a
portico of twelve feet in front supported by large round pillars,
making in all 60x40 feet wide. The first story is arranged for ofiices
and jury rooms, and is nine feet high; the court room is on the second
floor. The building stands on the highest ground in the corporation,
and was erected in 1845. *
F'irst Jail. — The first county prison was a wood structure of one
apartment located on the square above described, and was received and
accepted by the county commissioners, and the key given to the sherifif
on the 24th of November, 1846.
Second Jail. — This consisted of an addition of one apartment (con-
structed of wood, 12x16 feet in size), to the old jail, the two wooden
apartments being enclosed by a brick wall twelve inches thick. In Septem-
ber, 1848, the board of county commissioners accepted the proposition of
George G. Brown and Washington H. Hall to build this jail for $900,
to be completed on or before June 1, 1849. After twenty years' service
this prison passed into history with this comment from the grand Jury
made in August, 1869: "Is utterly insuflficient for the safe keeping of pris-
oners, and is deficient in every requisite ordinarily deemed to be
required for the health and comfort of human beings. As to the manner
in which the same has been kept they believe that the jailer has per-
124 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
formed his duties in that regard as well as circumstances would permit.
They would suggest that the jail building might possibly be used for
stabling purposes, but all of the jury being farmers and having a kindly
feeling for animals of the horse kind, would not recommend that it be
put to that use. "
Third Jail and Sheriff^s Residence. — The two-story substantial brick
residence of the sheriif, and jail, is located in the western corner of the
court house square, facing Mulberry Street, and was erected in 1870 at
a cost in round numbers of $5,000; the contract being let by the
county commissioners at a special session held in February, 1870, to
John M. Reister and to Charles Williams and Oliver English.
The Asylum for the Poor. — In 1853 steps were taken by the county
commissioners for the establishment in the county of an asylum for the
poor, and September 9 of that year they bought of F. L. and S. C. Gas-
kill fifty acres of land in Section 31, Township 4, Range 1, for which
they paid $1,700; the deed of conveyance, however, was not made until
March 8, 1854. Suitable buildings were soon erected, and in March,
1854, John Wallace was appointed the first superintendent of the insti-
tution at a salary of |200 for the year. In September, 1881, two tracts
of land were added to the farm, one of nineteen acres oflf of the O'Neal
place, and the other of thirty- three acres off of the S. H. Stewart place,
for which were paid $570 and $990 respectively. Among the superin-
tendents have been Stephen Booth, G. W. Sink, Lewis Lotton, William
Buchanan, Ed E. Lyon, Erastus Downey, N. Leggitt. The latter died
in the summer of 1882, while in office, and his unexpired time was
served out by Jacob Cooper, who that fall was appointed for a term of
five years. Mr. Cooper has managed the institution to the entire satis-
faction of the inmates and the county in general.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 125
CHAPTEK VII.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
First Roads— Road from Vincennesto Cincinnati— Stage Coaches-
Turnpikes— The Whitewater Valley Canal— Railroads— Ohio
River Navigation — Flat-boats— Keel-boats— First Steamboats.
THE first roads were mere traces or paths for horses. After. the first
public highways were established they remained for years little
more than mere tracks through the woods cleared of timber, without
bridges, and, in the fresh conditioo of the ^soil, almost impassable in
the wet season. Wagoning, however, was an important business before
the construction of cauals and railroads.
The first effort to establish a permanent road through either Dearborn
or Ohio Counties, of which we have any account, was in 1799, when
Capt. Ephraim Kibbey, then of Cincinnati, surveyed the route for a road
from Vincennes to Cincinnati. The route is not given, but it is stated
that he found the distance from Vincennes to the Great Miami to be 155
miles and forty-eight poles. The Western Spy, published in Cincinnati,
July 23, 1799, contained the following: "Capt. E. Kibbey, who, some time
since, undertook to cut a road from Fort Vincennes to this place, returned
on Monday reduced to a perfect skeleton. He had cut the road seventy
miles, when, by some means, he. was separated from his men. After
hunting them some days without success, he steered his course this way.
He has undergone great hardships, and was obliged to subsist on roots,
etc., which he picked up in the woods."
About 1820 the road from Cincinnati to Vincennes was described in
almanacs of that date as follows: "From Cincinnati to Vincennes —
Burlington, 15 milesj Rising Sun, 10; Judge Cotton's, 20; Madison, 20;
New Lexington, 17; Salem, 32; French Lick, 34; East Fork White
River (Shoat's), 17; North Fork White River (Hawkins') 20; Vincennes,
16; total, 201 miles."
As early as 1820 commissioners were appointed to lay out "State
roads." An important State road was laid out from Lawrenceburgh
through Brookville, by way of Southgate and Tanner's Creek, Conners-
ville, Waterloo, Ceutreville and Winchester. It was long familiarly
known as the Connersville State road.
126 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
^ Stage coaches began to be important means of carrying passengers
anci mails over the principal thoroughfares of Indiana between 1825 and
1830. In 1831 a post-coach was run between Cincinnati and Lawrence-
burgh, via Elizabethtown and Cleves. Leaving Lawrenceburgh Mon-
days, Wednesdays and Fridays, at 6 A. M., it arrived at Cincinnati at
12 noon; and leaving Cincinnati on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays,
at 6 A. M., it arrived at Lawenceburgh at noon. The coach connected
at Lawrenceburgh with the Indianapolis stage on Tuesdays. The pro-
prietor informed the public that he had purchased a new and elegant
four-horse coach, of sufficient capacity to accommodate eight passengers,
and that he intended to superintend the driving in person. In 1838 the
stage route from Indianapolis to Cincinnati, via Lawrenceburgh and
Napoleon, was through New Bethel, Wrightsdale, Brandywine, Shelby-
ville, Middletown, St. Omer, Greensburg, Napoleon, Laughery, Man-
chester, Lawrenceburgh, Elizabethtown and Cheviot.
At the close of the year 1835, there were only two macadamized
roads leading into Cincinnati, one of which was twelve, and the other
sixteen miles long. Several years elapsed before there were any turn-
pikes in Dearborn County. In 1840, an editorial article in the Beacon,
published at Lawrenceburgh, urged the necessity of improving the roads
of Dearborn County, which then included Ohio County. "Nothing,"
wrote the editor, "will aid so much in bringing capital and business to
the place as good roads, and in this particular our county is lamentably
deficient. It is idle to wait for the State or the county to do anything;
this township should take the lead. Nearly one-third of the whole
wealth of the county is in this township, and there are not more than
twenty or twenty-five miles of leading roads in it. That it would take
but a short time to turnpike the whole of them, by a judicious and equi-
table system, must be evident, and such an example would unquestiona-
bly be followed by the other large townships, and most of the leading
roads would be made good."
Aurora, in its early history, labored under great disadvantages, on
account of the expense and difficulty of crossing the different streams
emptying into the Ohio above and below that place. Wilmington mo-
nopolized most of the business in that region. There was little trade
brought to Aurora by the river road. In 1836, George W. Lane built a
bridge across the mouth of Hogan Creek, which opened the way of com-
munication through Aurora to Lawrenceburgh. The road up the valley
of South Hogan Creek was relocated, and a bridge was built across
South Hogan Creek, on the road from Aurora to AVilmington. The next
important step for the benefit of Aurora was the relocating the road from
Aurora to Manchester, to go up the hill where there was an easy grade
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 127
obtained, instead of following the ridge to a point just above Cheek's
house.
The constant use of these dirt roads, as business began to increase at
Aurora, made them almost impassable during the winter and spring of
the year, which made it necessary that the main roads to Aurora should
be made turnpikes. At the session of the Legislature in 1847, Mr. Lane
being a member, a charter was obtained authorizing a company to build
a turnpike road from Aurora to Dillsborough, and Hart' a Mill in Ripley
County. Also a charter for the building of a turnpike from Aurora to
Moore's Hill by way of Wilmington. These roads were soon after con-
structed, and added greatly to the commercial trade of Aurora.
About this time a law was passed authorizing the trustees of Canton
Township to improve the roads in that township, and they graded and
macadamized the road up the hill toward Manchester, and the road down
the river to the mouth of Laughery Creek.
The third improvement was made by the township (Center) in chang-
ing the road to Lawrenceburgh, and in conjunction with Lawrenceburgh
Township building the macadamized road now in use.
The next important turnpike constructed was from Lawrenceburgh to
Manchester. The company for the construction of this road was char-
tered February 18, 1840, and known as the Lawrenceburgh & Napo-
leon Turnpike Company, but the road was never built to Napoleon. The
company was organized in February, 1841, and books for the subscrip-
tion of stock were opened the following month.
The townships of Lawrencebm-gh and Miller projected and built the
turnpike from Lawrenceburgh to the State line near Elizabethtown.
The Aurora & Johnston's Mill Turnpike, eight miles in length, was
built by a stock company.
About the year 1850 the system of township roads was attracting
much attention. Four miles of the Tanner's Creek Turnpike were
announced as completed in May, 1851.
There was much improvement made in the roads in three years from
1867 to 1870.
April 1, 1869, it was announced that subscription books were opened
and canvassing commenced for the construction of the Rising Sun &
Laughery Turnpike; the amount of stock solicited was $20,000, in shares
of $25.
In June, 1868, the directors of the Rising Sun & Milton Turnpike
Company contracted for the construction of the road at a cost of
$1,375.89 per mile. Four miles were completed in the fall of the same
year.
May 28, 1870, the contract for the construction of the North Landing
128 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
& Quercus Grove Turnpike, was let at an average rate of $3,100 per
mile.
The Kising Sun & North Landing Turnpike Company was organ-
ized in September, 1870.
June 4, 1878, the wood and iron bridge across Laughery Creek on
the road from Aurora to Rising Sun fell into the creek. It had been
built in 1869. A new bridge at this place was completed in the autumn
of 1879, at a cost of $17,458, Ohio County paying the sum of $2,931.
WHITEWATER VALLEY CANAL.
One of the early demands of the people of a new country is for means
of intercommunication. So soon as the Western country began to be set-
tled there began the cry for national aid in opening up all sorts of aven-
ues for ingress and egress to and from the frontier lands. New York,
Pennsylvania and Ohio had given great attention to the subject of canals,
and Indiana early in its history turned its attention to the same subject.
The project of a canal thi-ough the Whitewater Valley was agitated
as early as 1822 or 1823, by Alvin Joselyn, then connected with the
Brookville press; subsequently there was held at Harrison, Ohio, a con-
vention of delegates from Franklin, Wayne, Union, Randolph, Fayette
and Dearborn Counties. A survey was soon made under the supervision
of Col. Shriver's Brigade of United States Engineers. Col. Shriver
died before the survey was completed, and after his death the work was
continued by Col. Stansbury, who began at the mouth of Garrison's
Creek, but discontinued his labor on the approach of winter.
Nothing further seems to have been done until 1834, when from the
Connersville Watchman it appears that "a corps of engineers are survey-
ing the route of the contemplated canal down the valley of the White-
water." /
In January, 1836, was passed by the General Assembly of Indiana the
celebrated act to provide for a general system of internal improvements
under which were commenced the Wabash and Erie Canal, the Madison
& Indianapolis Railroad, Indiana Central Canal and the Whitewater
Valley Canal. The last named work was to extend from Hagerstown to
Lawrenceburgh. The State of Ohio, or a company chartered by the State?
afterward constructed a branch from Harrison, Ohio, to Cincinnati.
The survey and location of the Whitewater Valley Canal were com-
pleted and the contracts for building the various sections were let at
Brookville, September 13,1836, which event was there the occasion of a
celebration, and that day made a general gala day. The orator on the
occasion was Hon. David Wallace. Gov. Noble, ex-Gov. James B. Ray,
Dr. Drake, of Cincinnati, and George H. Dunn, Esq., of Lawrenceburgh,
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 129
were chosen as representative characters to perform the ceremony of
"breaking ground" for the new canal.
Under the auspices of the State, the canal was completed from the
Ohio River to Brookville, as well as about half the work from Brook-
ville to Cambridge City. The cost of work to Brookville was $664,665.
At this time (1839) the State found itself in debt some $14,000,000, and
was compelled to abandon all public works.
The first boat to reach Brookville was the "Ben Franklin." This was
Saturday, June 8, 1839. The citizens gave vent to their joy by the
firing of cannon and other demonstrations.
At the session of 1841-42 the Legislature chartered the Whitewater
Valley Company with a capital stock of $400,000. In October, 1843,
the canal was extended from Brookville fifteen miles to Laurel; to Con-
nersville, twelve miles further, in June, 1845; and in October, the
same year, it was completed to Cambridge City, the entire cost to the
company being $473,000.
The first boat that arrived at Connersville was in the fall of 1845.
It was called the "Patriot," and was commanded by Capt. Gayle Ford.
On the 1st of January, 1847, a tremendous freshet damaged the
canal so badly that it cost upward of $100,000 to repair it; by the flood
was carried off the aqueduct across Symon's Creek, near Cambridge, and
that across the West Fork of Whitewater, at Laurel, besides washing
immense channels around the feeder dams at Cambridge, Connersville,
Laurel, Brookville, the one four miles below, and that at Harrison, and
also doing much damage along the whole line. A second flood in No-
vember, 1848, only a few weeks after repairs had been completed, dam-
aged it to the amount of $80,000. It was, however, again repaired and
operated, to some extent, for several years, until superseded by rail-
roads, one the Whitewater Valley Eailroad, constructed along the tow-
path, and part of the way in the bed of the canal, which had been pre-
viously placed in the hands of a receiver, and the right-of-way trans-
ferred to the railroad company for that purpose.
The canal constructed by the company extended north only to Cam-
bridge City. (The length of the canal from Lawrenceburgh to Cam-
bridge City was seventy miles.) Subsequently, in or about the year
1846, the Hagerstown Canal Company was organized and the canal com-
pleted to that place in 1847. But a small number of boats, however,
ever reached that place, and the canal soon fell into disuse, except as a
source of water-power.
RAILKOADS.
As early as 1834-35, when steam- car ti-ansportation was in its in-
fancy and before a single mile of railroad had been constructed in Indi-
130 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
ana, George H. Dunn was the advocate of a railroad from Lawrence-
burgh to Indianapolis. The project then failed. In 1847, the Legisla-
ture chartered a company of which Judge Dunn was the first president,
authorized to construct a railroad from Lawrenceburgh to Rushville,
but the president failed to meet with the encouragement he had hoped
for in Rush County. He then turned his attention to the northwest.
Finally the friends of a railroad'settled down upon the old project of a
road from Lawrenceburgh to Indianapolis. The contract for the con-
struction of the first division of this road — twenty miles up the Tanner
Creek valley — was let in July or August, 1849; the second division
reaching to Greensburgh a few months later, and the third division,
from Greensburgh to Indianapolis, in 1851. In September, 1853, the
whole line, except five miles between Greensburgh and Shelbyville, was
reported completed, and the cars running regularly thereon.
The history of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad involves legislation of
three States — Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. The first act of incorporation
of this road was granted by Indiana, February 14, 1848, incorporating
the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad Company and authorizing the construc-
tion of a railroad on the most practicable route "between Lawrenceburgh
on the Ohio River, and Vincennes on the Wabash River, and extending
eastwardly to the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and westwardly through the
State of Illinois to the city of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri."
March 15, 1849, the State of Ohio recognized the corporate powers
granted by Indiana, and authorized the extension of the road to Cincin-
nati. February 12, 1851, the State of Illinois authorized the com-
pany to construct a railroad through that State. In 1854 there were
completed twenty-nine miles of the road; in 1855, 233 miles; and in
1857 the whole line of 337 miles of six feet guage was open for traffic.
The articles of association of the Whitewater Valley Railroad Company
were filed with the Secretary of State, June 8, 1865. In 1866 there were
constructed eighteen miles of the road; in 1867, fifty-four miles; and in
1868 the entire line of sixty-two miles was completed.
In Dearborn County there are forty-nine miles of main track of rail
road divided among three companies as follows: Cincinnati, Indianapolis,
St. Louis & Chicago (including the Lawrenceburgh branch of two and
one-half miles), twenty-two; the Ohio & jMississippi, twenty-one, and the
Whitewater, six. The total value of railroad property in the county, as
assessed by the State board of equalization in 1883, was $550,562. There
is no railroad in Ohio County.
OHIO RIVER NAVIGATION.
The navigation of the Ohio has always been of vast importance to the
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 181
counties bordering upon it. The first boats employed upon its waters
were canoes and flat-boats, the latter made of stout green oak timber. In
the early history of the country the broad and gentle surface of the Ohio,
called the beautiful river, often presented an animated and joyous spec-
tacle, with its large and commodious boats of emigrants quietly floating
down the -stream. Each boat would contain one or more families of men,
women and children, with their domestic animals and furniture. A
little hut at one end of the boat was the cabin, and furnished protection
from the rain, being parlor, bed-room and kitchen for the household.
Sometimes a large raft of pine boards would float down from the Al-
legheny, containing a neat log- hut, and present a novel aspect, the emi-
grants bringing with them their all — their wives, children, horses, cattle,
sheep, fowls, the dog, wagon and household furniture of all sorts. There
was no toil in the journey down the stream. Two oars appropriately
placed very easily kept the raft in the center of the stream. With corn
meal on board, milk from the cow, and abundance of game from the shore,
the emigrant fared sumptuously on his voyage. Not unfrequently
several of these rafts would join together, and form a floating village of
six or seven families, and their live stock.
At an early period regular lines of keel-boats were established be-
tween Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, each boat making a trip in fom' weeks.
These boats had separate cabins for ladies and gentlemen. The pro-
prietor of one of these lines announced that "passengers will be supplied
with provisions and liquors of all kinds, of the finest quality, and at the
most reasonable rates possible. Persons desiring to work their passage
will be admitted on finding themselves, subject, however, to the same
order and directions from the master of the boat as the rest of the work-
ing hands of the boat's crew." These boats, as well as the flat-boats,
were propelled by oars and setting poles. Their cargoes were necessarily
light, especially in going up stream.
The first improvement in the navigation of the Ohio, according to
Judge Burnet, was the introduction of barges moved by sails, when the
wind permitted, and at other times by oars and poles, as the state of the
water might require. These vessels were constructed to carry from fifty
to 100 tons. In wet seasons, if properly manned, they could make two
trips between Cincinnati and New Orleans in a year. The increased
quantity of cargo they carried reduced the price of freight, and enabled
them to transport from New Orleans to Cincinnati at from $5 to $6
per 100, which was below the average charge of carriage across the
mountains. From that time most of the groceries used in the Territory
were brought up the river by these barges; as the price of freight was
diminished, the quantity of produce shipped was proportionately in*
132 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
creased. The introduction of this mode of navigating the Ohio and
Mississippi was an epoch in the history of the West. The barges were
well adapted to the purpose for which they were designed, and continued
in use until navigation by steamboats became common.
But for some time after the introduction of keel-boats, flat-boating
down the Ohio and Mississippi was an important business. About the
year 1820 building flat-boats at and near Hartford assumed importance.
Sometimes as many as forty or fifty, or even sixty, would be loading at
one time in that vicinity. These boats were usually from sixty to eighty
feet long by from fourteen to sixteen wide, and drew from thirty to
thirty-six inches of water. Starting upon the Ohio, usually in March,
on reaching the Mississippi these boats would form fleets of as many as
twenty.' Landing every night, the crew would remain ashore until after
breakfast. Many boats were loaded at Rising Sun. The flat-boat busi-
ness began to decline subsequent to 1830.
The lirst steamboat which made a voyage down the Ohio left Pitts-
burgh in October, 1811, and in four days arrived at Louisville. This
boat was called the " New Orleans," and on its first voyage carried no
freight or passengers. In consequence of the small depth of water in
the rapids, the boat was detained at Louisville for three weeks. It
improved the time in making several trips between Louisville and Cin-
cinnati. The comparatively few and scattered inhabitants on the Indi-
ana side of the river, whom even the rumor of such an invention had
never reached, when they gazed upon the novel appearance of the vessel,
saw the rapidity with which it made its way over the waters and heard
the strange noise caused by the stream rushing from the valves, were
excited with a mixture of surprise and terror.
Several small steamboats were constructed at Pittsburgh, Brownsville
and Wheeling within the next five years, but it was not until the suc-
cessful voyage of the " Washington" between Louisville and New Orleans
in 1817 that the general public were convinced that steamboat navigation
of the western rivers would succeed. The " General Pike," built at Cincin-
nati in 1818, to ply between Louisville, Cincinnati and Maysville, is said
to have been the first steamboat on the Ohio for the exclusive accommo-
dation of passengers. This vessel measured 100 feet keel, twenty -five
beam, and drew three feet three inches of water. The cabin was forty
feet long and twenty-five broad.
AGRICULTURE. 133
CHAPTEK VIII.
AGRICULTURE.
PiONEEK Farming— Early Implements— Pioneer Plowing— Reaping
WITH THE Sickle— Horses— Cattle— Swine— Principal Crops- The
Floating Barn— A.gricultural Societies— Ohio and Switzerland
County Agricultural Society— Dearborn County Agricultural
Society— Southeast Indiana ^agricultural Society— Lawrence-
burgh xVgricultural Association.
lyj'OTWITHSTANDING the wonderful fertility of the rich, virgin soil
JL N| when the old forests were cut away, and the genial and vivifying rays
of the sun shone upon the first crops planted by the hand of man, agricul-
ture was not the road to wealth with the early settlers. The great embar-
rassment under which the pioneer farmer- labored was the difficulty of get-
ting the products of his soil to a market. In spite of roots and stumps,
sprouts and bushes, the newly cleared land brought forth bountiful har
vests; but the wagon roads were imperfect, canals and railroads un-
thought of, and the distance by the Ohio River to the principal markets
so great, the navigation so difficult, tedious and hazardous, that the early
farmer had little encouragement to increase the products of his fields
beyond the wants of his family, and the supply of the limited home mar-
ket created by the wants of the inhabitants of the neighboring towns
and the newly-arrived immigrants. The average time required for a jour-
ney by a flat-boat propelled by oars and poles, from Lawrenceburgh to
New Orleans and return, was six months. The cargoes taken in these
boats were necessarily light; the boats could not be easily brought back,
and were generally abandoned at New Orleans and the crew returned by
land, sometimes on foot through a wilderness of hundreds of miles. A
large part of the proceeds of the cargo was necessarily consumed in the
cost of taking it to market.
Hogs and cattle were driven afoot over the mountains, and, after a
journey of a month or six weeks, fouad an uncertain market in Baltimore.
Corn rarely commanded more than 10 or 12 cents per bushel; wheat, 30
or 40 cents; hay was from $3 to $4 per ton; flour from $1.50 to $2 per
hundred; pork from $1 to $2 per hundred; the average price of good
beef was $1.50 per hundred, while oats, potatoes, butter and eggs
scarcely had a market value, and the sale of cabbage and turnips was
134 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
almost unlieard of. But the early farmers supplied tLeir homes liberally
with the comforts of pioneer life; they lived independently, and, perhaps,
were as happy and contented as those who have the luxuries brought by
wealth and commence.
The proximity of a spring, rather than the claims of taste or sanitary
considerations, usually determined the location of the first residence of
the pioneer farmer; and the log stable and the corn-crib, made of rails
or poles, were apt to be in close proximity to the residence. The first
fences, both for the fields and the door-yard, were made of rails in the
form of the Virginia, or worm fence. This, in a new country, where
timber, readily split with the wedge and maul, was abundant, was the
cheapest and the most durable fence. Unsightly as it is, it is yet super-
seded to a limited extent only by post and rail, board or wire fences, or
hedges.
IMPLEMENTS.
The agricultural implements of the pioneers were necessarily few in
number and made simple in construction — often made on the farm with
some assistance from the noir^hboring blacksmiths. The plows used were
the bar- share and the shovel. The iron part of the former consisted of
a bar of iron about two feet long, and a broad share of iron welded to
it. At the extreme point was a coulter that passed through a beam six
or seven feet long, to which were attached handles of corresponding
length. The mold board was a wooden one split out of winding tim-
ber, or hewed into a winding shape in order to turn the soil over. The
whole length of the plow, from the fore end of the beam to the ends of
the handles, was eight or ten feet. Newly cleared ground was with this
plow broken up with great difficulty. On this subject a pioneer says:
"The old bar-share plow, with a coulter and wooden mold board, was
the best plow then in use, though by far the greatest number used only
the shovel plow, which answered an excellent purpose in the loose rich
alluvium soil in its virgin purity, free from weeds and grass. The shovel
was all the iron connected with the plow, and not unlike those in use at
the present day. The gearing or harness used by a majority of our pio-
neers was so novel in its construction that I must describe it. The bridle
for the horse was an iron bit, the balance being of small rope. The col-
lar was made of shucks (the husks of the corn). The hames were shaped
out of a crooked oak or a hickory root, fastened at the top with a cord
and at the bottom in the same way. The traces were of rope, the back-
band being of tow cloth. The whiffle-tree or single-tree was of wood,
with a notch on each end; the trace hitched by a loop over the whiffle-
tree, and to the hame through a hole. The whiffle tree was attached to
the double-tree by a hickory withe, and sometimes by a wooden clevis
AGRICULTURE. 135
made of two pieces of some tough wood, with wooden pin: the double-
tree fastened to the end of the plow beam by the same form of
clevis and sometimes an iron one. To the rope bridle was attached a
cord, called a single-line, by which the horse was driven. By far the
largest number of plow-teams was only a single horse, geared as before
described, and hitched to the shovel-plow, the ground broken up, crossed
oflf and tended by the same plow and horse."
The cast-iron plow was slowly introduced. The early harrows were
made of bars of wood and wooden teeth, and were rude and homely in
construction. Sometimes, in place of the harrow, a brush, weighted
down with a piece of timber, was dragged over the ground. The sickle
was in universal use for harvesting grain until about 1825, when it was
gradually superseded by the cradle. The sickle is one of the most an-
cient of farming implements; but reaping with the sickle was always slow
and laborious. For the twenty years succeeding 1830, there were few
farmers who did not know how to swing the cradle and scythe, but dur-
ing the next twenty years reapers and mowers, drawn by horses, became
almost the only harvesters of grain and grass. The first reaping ma-
chines merely cut the grain; a raker was necessary to gather the grain
into sheaves ready for the binders. Self-raking reaping machines soon
followed, and, about 1878, self-binding machines were introduced. Of
the two old-fashioned methods of separating the grain from the straw —
the flail and the tramping with horses — the latter was the most common
in this region. To-day, instead of this slow and wasteful method, a
horse or steam-power thresher not only separates the grain, but winnows
it and carries the straw to the stack, all at the same time.
HARVESTING WITH THE SICKLE.
A newspaper writer thus describes the harvesting of the pioneers:
" My first experience in harvesting was about 1825. Then about
twenty-five or more men would work together. The reapers went to the
farm-house where they were to harvest, and there they would find a lunch
set out, consisting of milk, bread and butter, cold ham sliced, onions,
etc., then a tanzy bitters, after which they get to the field. There a
leader was chosen, generally by the owner of the field. The leader com-
mences; he cuts a space about four feet wide and two feet deep; the
second falls in, and cuts the same space, and so on until all are cutting.
They cut to the middle of the field, and then if the leader is acquainted
with all his men he will stand and rest for from one to five minutes; if
not, he will inspect the work of every one thoroughly, and commend or
reprimand as he thinks the reapers deserve. After the brief rest is over,
the leader gives the word to go ahead, and they cut to the end. If the
136 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
grain should be very wet they let it lie in grips until it is dry enough to
bind. They keep on cutting until about 8 o'clock, when they breakfast.
About 9 o'clock they commence again. Dinner is served at 12. About 4
o'clock a piece with coffee, some of the reapers putting a good dram in
their coffee. Early in the morning the boys were allowed to take their
sickles and gouge for their fathers; that is, to go to the far end of their
through and reap till they would meet them, but as soon as the dew was
off they had to hang up their sickles. Some would be detailed to carry
water, others placed under some old man and made to gather sheaves.
All this seems very slow work compared with that of the reaping
machine, but the modern reaper could have done nothing in the fields
then, for the stumps stood as thick as the shocks.
"About 1827 there were two cradles in our fields, but they never cut
as clean as the sickle or the reaping machine. But the cradles soon
caused the sickles to be hung up in the barn, seldom to be taken down
except for the purpose of cutting a patch of grain blown down. Wages
for reapers were 50 cents per day."
The capital invested in domestic animals constitutes a large item in
the wealth of the counties. Improvements in breeds of all the farm ani-
mals have kept pace with the improvements in agricultural implements
and methods of tilling the soil. After the land had been generally
cleared of the forests, the necessity of oxen ceased, and interest in the
improvement of the horse commenced. The possession of good horses —
elegant, strong and speedy — became a matter of pride with the farmer.
Speed was not considered of special value in the horse until the improve-
ments in the public roads rendered possible the use of the modern light
carriage.
The beneficial effect of agricultural fairs was soon seen in the
improvement of live stock, and especially of horses. Before the estab-
lishment of fairs the horses of this region were of a most uncertain
and inferior breed. Soon after the Morgan horses, Tom Crowders,
Hio-hlanders and other good horses were introduced. The Morgans
came first, and a number of fine horses of the breed were exhibited at
early fairs, and were much admired. Whenever a new breed has been
introduced the tendency has always been to amalgamate it with stock
already in use. The strains of blood have not therefore been kept dis-
tinct. The farm horses or horses for general purposes found throughout
the counties are of mixed and uncertain blood, but it is certain that they
have been greatly improved within thirty years in style, action, form,
temper and endurance.
^J^n^jTA^
■2/'tlf?L Ji ^
AGRICULTURE. 139
The cattle of the early settlers were introduced from various quarters,
eraigrants from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky bringing many
with them; and it is believed by some that cattle raised by the Indians
previous to the first settlement by the whites, were an element in the
original or common herds in the West. Of course they were a heteroge-
neous collection, yet in process of time, the stock was assimilated to the
locality, acquiring local characteristics, by which the experienced cattle-
dealer determined from their general appearance the region in which
they were reared.
The early farmers suffered their cattle to wander through the woods
and uncultivated grounds, browsing for their living, and thus some of
the native grasses or shrubs were extirpated by being cropped off early
in the spring before the flowers and seeds were formed. In winter the
cows were not housed nor sheltered, but found their subsistence at a
stack of wheat-straw, or in the corn-field, after husking time; or, at best,
were fed twice a day in an open lot with fodder and unhusked corn.
The practice, which is still common, of securing the corn before it is
fully matured, by cutting off the stalks near the ground, and stacking it
in the field, is said to have originated with the cattle-feeders of Virginia.
The Patton stock of cattle, introduced into Kentucky early in this
century, doubtless found their way across the Ohio, and were crossed
with the cattle on the north side. The Kentucky importation of 1817
also probably influenced, to some extent, the cattle of this region. Excel-
lent short-horn cattle continued to be introduced from time to time, until
there is scarcely a neighhorhood in which more or less of their cross is
not found. Of lale years the Jerseys and other breeds are finding their
way into favor.
SWINE.
A writer on the subject of the swine of the early settlers, gives this
description of them: "They were long and slim, long-suouted and long-
legged, with an arched back, and bristles erect from the back of the head
to the tail, slab-sided, active and healthy. The 'sapling-splitter' and
'razor-back,' as he was called, was ever in the search for food, and quick
to take alarm. He was capable of making a heavy hog, but required two
years or more to mature, and. until a short time before butchering or
marketing, was suffered to run at large, subsisting mainly as a forager,
and in the fall fattening on the 'mast.' "
What a contrast between the bogs of that period and those of 1885!
Probably no change wrought in the stock of the farmer is so marked as
in this animal. Those of to-day mature early and are almost the reverse
of the razor-back, having a small head, small ear, short neck, with a
140 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
long body and hams, and in general shape are almost square, and are
capable of taking on 250 pounds of flesh in eight or ten months.
Of the improved breeds of swine, the Suffolks, Chester Whites,
Berkshires and Poland Chinas are foremost.
PKINCIPAL CROPS.
Corn is especially adapted to the rich bottoms which receive frequent
additions of rich alluvium from the overflowing river and creeks. The
crop, however, is sometimes destroyed by late floods. In what is known
as the "big bottom," a large tract in Dearborn County extending from
the junction of the Whitewater and Miami Rivers to their mouth, and
thence along the Ohio to the mouth of Tanner's Creek at Aurora, a dis-
tance of ten miles, corn is almost the exclusive crop. Fields on these
bottoms which have been planted in corn for forty years in succession,
will produce without manure from sixty to one hundred bushels per
acre. The average is about seventy five bushels. These bottoms are
valued very highly on account of their productiveness, and being subject
to occasional inundations from back-water from the Ohio, no fears are
entertained of an exhaustion of their fertility. In Ohio County there
are extensive tracts of fertile bottom lands along Laughery Creek and
the Ohio, and Indian corn is perhaps the most important crop in Ohio
and Switzerland Counties.
Wheat is an important crop in this region; oats, rye and barley are
also grown to some extent. Potatoes form an important crop in Ohio
County, it being nothing unusual for a farmer to cultivate forty acres in
potatoes, producing from fifty to three hundred bushels per acre. Grass
is the principal crop on the uplands. Two tons of hay from one acre
are not uncommon, but the average yield is about one ton per acre,
Switzerland County has been noted for the amount of timothy hay
shipped to the Southern market. The hay is pressed into bales by what
is generally called the "Morman Hay Press." Some years ago there
were reported to be about two hundred of these presses in Switzerland
County and about fifty in Ohio County. In Cotton Township, in the
former county, where this press was invented and the first one erected,
there were said to be fifty in operation. In recent years tobacco grow-
ing has become an important industry in southeast Indiana.
THE FLOATING BARN.*
Mr. Jesse Hunt, of Lawrenceburgh, was one of the first settlers of
that place, and about the year 1819 erected "Hunt's Hotel," which, by
nhe way, was considered the "star" hotel of this country as long as Mr.
*By George W. Lane.
AGRICULTURE. 141
Hunt kept it. As he had to raise his own hay, he cleared a piecje of
ground (upon which the Methodist Church was afterward built), and
seeded it down to grass, every year clearing a little more land, and rais-
ing yearly more than was necessary for home consumption, until he
found a surplus of hay upon his hands which he knew not how to dis-
pose of. After thinking over the matter for some time, he concluded
that there must be a market for hay somewhere down the river, and made
up his mind to put his hay afloat and try to find that market. But there
was one great difficulty which stood in the way of this project: the bulk
of the hay would prevent its being compact enough to make the trans-
portation of it profitable. Here indeed was a dilemma; but ever fertile
in expedients, Mr. Hunt conceived the idea of pressing his hay. But
how to construct a machine for doing this puzzled him worse than ever,
and brought his speculation to a stand. At this stage of the proceed-
ings he bethought him of a Mr. Morrison, an "universal genius," and a
man of great inventive propensities, who lived at Hardintown, and
who, he thought, if any one, could aid him in the construction of his
machine. So, posting up to Hardintown, he sought Mr. Morrison, and
laid his plans before him. Mr. M. entered heartily into the scheme, and
setting to work in a few days turned out the first hay press ever invented
— an old-fashioned, wooden screw press. When it was completed Mr.
M. went on to Washington and procured a patent for his invention.
Meanwhile Mr. Hunt had the press put up, and set to work baling his
hay. The neighbors gathered around to witness the operations of the
new "hay-mil]," which was the object of as much curiosity as would
have been a traveling menagerie to the denizens of this then sparsely
settled country. Some shook their heads, others laughed outright, and
all persisted in assuring Mr. Hunt that they would soon see in him a
walking illustration that "a fool and his money are soon parted." But
Mr. H. "reckoned he knew a thing or two," and kept on about his busi-
ness, despite their taunts and jeers. The hay baled, the next thing to
be done was to build a boat to put it in. This was accomplished in due
time, and the first hay boat that ever floated down the Ohio received its
load preparatory to starting for a market. From his inexperience in
the business, Mr. Hunt had some difficulty in constructing sweeps, etc.,
to suit him, but having the whole forest to go to, he at last got his boat
rigged out, and everything ready for a start. On the day of his depar-
ture the whole settlement turned out to see the "floating barn" fairly
under way, and amid the not very complimentary remarks of the more
knowing ones, and the ridicule of the whole crowd, the moorings were
cast off, and the boat floated along with the current, and was soon lost to
their sight as it swept around the nearest bend.
142 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
"The crowd, with fingers in their mouths,
"Went homeward, one by one."
Mr. Hunt's hay speculation furnished material for gossip for a few
days, and was then almost entirely forgotten.
In those days the arrival of a steamboat at the wharf was not a mat-
ter of such comparative indifference as at present. There were then but
very few boats navigating the Western rivers, and the stoppage of a boat
at a river town brought all the inhabitants to the bank to see who was
going to land, learn the news, etc. Steamboat whistles had not then
come into use, and each boat carried a small cannon, which was fired off
to announce its approach to town. One day, it may have been three or
four weeks after Mr. Hunt's departure, the booming of a cannon an-
nounced to the citizens of Lawrenceburgh that a steamboat was ap-
proaching their village. Instantly all work was stopped; the blacksmith
dropped his sledge, the carpenter his plane, the merchant his yardstick,
and all repaired to the bank of the river to watch the approaching boat.
On she came, and when she had arrived sufficiently near to enable the
people on the shore to distinguish one individual from another, they saw
Jesse Hunt standing erect upon the prow. The boat landed, and the
eager crowd gathered around Mr. Hunt, with, "Well, Jesse, how far
down did you get with your 'floating barn' before you stove her?"
"What's hay worth in New Orleans?" "Where's the wreck of your
boat?" etc., etc. As soon as he could get an opportunity, Mr. Hunt told
them that he had got along very well until he arrived at the mouth of
White River, where they were lying one day, when a steamboat came
up, and a stranger, hailing Mr. Hunt, asked him what he would take a
ton for his hay. He replied $30. The stranger accepted the offer, the
hay changed hands, and IMr. Hunt returned home. The crowd which
had gathered around him, expecting to have some rare sport at his
expense, felt rather cheap at this (to them) unexpected result of his spec-
•ulation, and quietly dispersed.
As it was when Columbus made the egg stand upon its end, so it was
in this case. The ice having been broken, others built boats and sent
their hay down the river, from which they realized handsome profits.
Thus was a trade commenced which has increased from year to year as
the county became more thickly settled, until hay has become a leading
article of export, affording employment to a large number of our citi-
zens in preparing it and getting it to market, and returning a handsome
profit to those who invest their money in speculating upon it. We can
hardly pass a farm in a ride of ten miles into the country but what has
a hay press, and whenever we see one it reminds us of the "hay mill"
that was so universally ridiculed by the good people of Lawrenceburgh
in 1819.
AGRICULTURE. 143
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES AND FAIRS.
The Ohio and Switzerland County Agricultural Society was organized
October 11, 1851. The first annual fair of the society was held at Rising
Sun, October 6 and 7, 1852, at which the attendance was reported unex-
pectedly large, numbering about 3,000 people. The exhibit of agricult-
ural and mechanical articles was commendable. The number of pre-
miums awarded was sixty- seven, and the amount paid for premiums was
$101 besides a number of copies of the report of the State Board of
Agriculture. At this time John Hall was president and W. M. French,
secretary. For four or five years the exhibitions of the society were held
alternately between Rising Sun and Vevay, the citizens of those places
contributing the funds necessary to fit up the grounds. In 1857, a per-
manent site for a fair ground was secured near Enterprize, in Switzer-
land County, since which time the exhibitions have been held there. In
1877 the association had twenty-five acres. Success has almost invari-
ably attended the fairs of the society. In 1880, the secretary reported
1,080 entries, $1,700 paid out in premiums; $400 expended in sub-
stantial improvements; all claims against the society paid and a balance
in the treasury of $891.60.
The Dearborn County Agricultural Society was organized April 10,
1852. The first officers were Seth Piatt, president; Gersham Dunn and
John D. Johnson, vice-presidents, and Francis Worley, secretary. The
first annual fair was held at Manchester, October 27, 28, and 29, 1852.
In that year the society numbered 125 members. The receipts and ex-
penditures of the society the first year were as follows:
From fees of members •. $117.00
" county 60.00
" premium donated 13.00
" proceeds of fair 71.75
$261.75
Paid amount of premiums $83.00
" printing 8.00
" contingent expenses of fair 11.45
" books and stationery 11.08
$113.53
Balance in treasury $148.22
In 1856, the Dearborn County Fairs began to be held at Aurora.
The society had there enclosed nine acres of ground leased for five years.
In 1858 the society had 600 members.
The Southeastern Indiana Agricultural Society was organized as a
stock company in 1869, and was a reorganization of the Aurora society.
144 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
March 4, 1869, the Dearborn County Agricultural Society met and
resolved to abandon their organization, and to organize a new society
under the laws of Indiana to be known as the Southeastern Indiana Agri-
cultural, Horticultural and Mechanical Association. The first fair of the
new organization was held September 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, 1869. The
receipts were $2,210.10; the amount paid for premiums was |1,656, and
$557 were expended on the grounds. The fair ground is located one-
half mile northwest of Aurora in a beautiful grove of maple-trees. The
ground is held in trust by the city for the use of the society; the im-
provements are owned by the society.
The Lawrenceburgh Agricultural Association held its first fair in
1879. The association has splendid fair grounds, with a half-mile track,
and a covered stand with a seating capacity of 2,500. The grounds are
beautifully situated, and the appointments complete. The city has been
liberal to the society in donations. The secretary, in his report for
1882, said: "The past has been very unlucky in some respects. Fire
has twice destroyed forty-eight box stalls and a barn. The first time the
loss was $1,800, but the second time, luckily, we were insured for $1,200,
about two-thirds of the damage sustained. In the winter of 1882 the
Miami and Ohio Rivers broke over their banks, and went rushing through
the fair grounds at a lively rate, carying desolation in their wake, and
playing sad havoc with the grounds generally. The association was
damaged fully $1,000 by this catastrophe. Notwithstanding these dis-
couragements, the directors went to work, built new box stalls and barn,
a large and fine art hall costing $2,000, and made other improvements.
The success of the fair of 1882 was phenomenal. It rained every day
during the fair, and by looking at the gate receipts you find that the at-
tendance was astonishingly large."
THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 145
CHAPTER IX.
THE LEGAL PROFESSION.
The Legal Business of the Pioneers— The Practice of Law in the
Territorial Courts— The Lawyers and practice in the Early
State Courts— The Pioneer Lawyers of Dearborn County —
Sketches of Some Deceased Members of the Bar.
IT is probable that the legal business of the earliest pioneers of south
east Indiana was transacted at Cincinnati, which was the most im-'
portant town northwest of the Ohio. The first courts in Indiana were
held at Vincennes, and that place was the first seat of justice of the re-
gion comprising Dearborn and Ohio Counties, but its distance, and the
fact that at that time there had been no sales of land by the United
States, make it doubtful if any legal business for this region was trans-
acted at that ancient town. Cincinnati was accessible; was the seat of
justice for this region from 1798 to 1802, and the United States land
office was located there. In 1796, when the first settlements were com-
menced in Dearborn County, there were nine practicing attorneys in the
little village of Cincinnati, all of whom, except two, says Judge Burnet,
became confirmed drunkards, and descended to premature graves. The
same writer says of the early lawyers and the practice of law in the ter-
ritory northwest of the Ohio:
"It was always my opinion that there was a fair proportion of genius
and talent among the early members of the bar. Some of them, it is
true, were uneducated, and had to acquire their legal knowledge after
they assumed the profession. These were not numerous, but were noisy
and officious, and, for some time, were able to procure a considerable
amount of practice. This may be accounted for, in part, by the fact
that the docket contained a large number of actions for slander and as-
sault and battery, and indictments for larceny, libels and the like, which
generally originated among the followers of the army, who were numer-
ous, consisting of pack-horsemen, bullock-drivers, boatmen and artificers,
who were not always very discriminating in the selection of counsel.
"In 1796 our circuit was a very extended one, though it included but
three counties — Washington, Hamilton and Wayne. Nevertheless, in De-
cember, 1799 Mr. St. Clair and myself attended the court at Vincennes,
in the county of Knox, with a view of engaging in the practice. But
146 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
the distance, connected with the fact that the docket did not present a
prospect of much lucrative business, induced us to abandon the project.
"When it is recollected that the country at that time, and for some
years thereafter, was destitute of roads, bridges and ferries, and even of
white inhabitants, after traveling thirty or forty miles from the county
towns, it might naturally be concluded that our journeys through the
wilderness, from court to court, were irksome and unpleasant. Such,
however, was not the fact. We took care to provide comfortable stores,
which we were enabled to transport on our horses, with the aid of a
pack-horse, and our minds were made up to endure anything that might
occur. The want of bridges and ferries rendered the art of swimming
an indispensable qualification of a good hackney. No man purchased a
horse for the saddle without being first assured that he was a safe swim-
mer, and when mounted on such a steed he felt himself secure. Gener-
ally, our parties consisted of four or five, and were, in reality, more like
excursions for amusement than journeys of fatigue and distress."
Oliver H. Smith, in speaking of the lawyers of early Indiana, says: "Our
lawyers were what the world calls self made men, meaning men who have
not had the advantages of rich fathers and early education, to whom the
higher seminaries and colleges were sealed books; men gifted by nature
with strong, vigorous, clear intellects, fine health and sound constitutions;
men who, like the newly hatched swan, were directed by nature to their
proper elements, their proper professions. Few of them failed of success.
Necessity urged to action. With most of them it was 'root or die.' In
ninety-nine cases out of every hundred of the failures in the dif-
ferent professions and avocations in life, charged by the world to ' bad
luck,' it is nothing more nor less than the selection of a profession,
avocation or business that nature never intended you for. The smallest
teal or duck, that swims on the bosom of Chesapeake Bay, would sink
and drown, in that element, the best blooded and finest game-cock that
ever old Virginia produced in her most chivalric days; while in the cock-
pit the teal or duck would be nowhere in the fight.
"Our counties furnished too little business for the resident attorneys;
we all looked to a circuit practice. Some rode the whole circuit, and
others over but few counties. We sometimes had a little sparring in our
cases in trials, but it ended there, and we stood banded together like
brothers. At the Rush Circuit Court my friend Judge Perry bargained
for a pony for $25, to be delivered the next day, on a credit of six months.
The man came with the pony, but required security of the Judge for the
$25. The Judge drew the note at the top of a sheet of foolscap and
signed it. I signed it; James Rariden signed and passed it on, and on
it went from lawyer to lawyer around the bar, till some twenty of us had
THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 147
signed it. I then handed it up to the court, and the three judges put
their names to it. Judge Perry presented it to the man he had bought
the pony of, but he promptly refused to receive it. 'Do you think I am
a fool, to let you get the court and all the lawyers on your side ? I see
you intend to cheat me out of my pony.' Up he jumped and ran out of
the court house on full gallop.
" The great variety of trials and incidents on the circuit gave to the
life of a traveling attorney an interest that we all relished exceedingly.
There was none of the Green Bay City monotony, no dyspepsia, no gout,
no ennui, rheumatism or neuralgia; consumption was a stranger among
us. An occasional jump of the ^toothache, relieved by the turnkey of
the first doctor we came to, was the worst. All was fun, good humor,
fine jokes well received, good appetites and sound sleeping, cheerful
landlords and good-natured landladies at the head of the table. We
rode first-class hoi'ses: Gen. Noble on 'Wrangler,' for which he gave
$60; Drew on ' Drew Gray,' cost $70; Caswell on 'Blue Dick,' cost $65;
Rariden on 'Old Gray,' cost $80; John Test on 'Bay Filly,' cost $50;
Gen. McKinney on 'McKinney Roan,' cost $45; David Wallace on
'Ball,' cost $40; Amos Lane on ' Big Sorrel,' cost $60; Judge Eggleston
on 'Indian pony,' cost $35; George H. Dunn on 'Dancing Rabbit,' cost
$40; James B. Ray on 'Red Jacket,' cost $60; Martin M. Ray on
'John,' cost $35; William R. Morrison 'Jacob,' cost $50; Charles H.
Test on 'Archie,' cost $40; John S. Newman on 'Clay Bank,' cost $60;
and I rode 'Grey Fox,' that cost me $90. These were the highest prices
at that day for the very best traveling horses in the country. They were
trained to the cross-pole mud roads, and to swimming.
" Our attorneys were ready, off-hand practitioners, seldom at fault for
the occasion. Sometimes we had to meet attorneys from other States,
who would tire the Latin and technical terms with a triumphant air, but
in most cases they were foiled by the quick retorts of our bar."
The following named persons were members of the bar of Dearborn
County and practiced before the courts of the county prior to 1820:
James Dill, J. B. Thomas, Thomas Wardell, John Lawrence, Elijah
Sparks, Amos Lane, Jesse L. Holman, James Noble, Stephen C.
Stevens, William Hendricks, Daniel J. Caswell, Moses Hitchcock.
Subsequent to 1820 appear the names of John Test, Sr., George H.
Dunn, Edwin Pratt, Ezekiel Walker, Arthur St. Clair Vance, Philip L.
Spooner, Horace Bassett, Henry Cunlifife, D. S. Major, James T. Brown,
Theodore and Carter Gazlay.
The following list of the members of the bar of Dearborn County in
1871 was prepared by W. W. Tilley in an historical address deposited
in the corner-stone of the court house: Daniel S. Major, William S.
148 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Holman, -John D. Haynes, John Schwartz, John K. Thompson, William
Wirt Tilley, George B. Fitch, Noah S. Givan, Francis Adkinson, Will-
iam H. Bainbridge, Omar F. Roberts, George W. Roberts, E. W. Adkin-
son, Hamilton Conaway, William H. Mathews, Isaac M. Dunn, Charles
S. Dunn, Hugh D. McMullen, O. B. Liddell, Richard Gregg and George
R. Brumblay.
When the first term of court in Ohio County convened on the second
Monday of December, 1844, the resident bar of that county consisted of
one member only, Asaph Buck, who soon after removed to Wilmington
in Dearborn County. On the second day of the term, Daniel Kelso,
James Brown, Theodore Gazley, Daniel S. Major, A. C. Downey, J. S.
Jelley and P. L. Spooner were admitted as attorneys of the court. Of
these Hon. A. C. Downey and James S. Jelley, located in Rising Sun,
where they continued to reside. A. C. Downey became circuit judge in
1850 and filled that office until 1858, and in 1870 was elected to the
supreme bench. In 1846 Samuel Dibble and John W. Spencer were ad-
mitted to the bar and located in Rising Sun; the former died soon after
and the latter continued in the practice until his death in 1859. Henry
A. Downey was admitted to the bar in 1849 and practiced at Rising Sun
until 1858, when he removed to Vevay. John J. Hayden was admitted
in 1850, and, in 1858, was elected common pleas judge, which office he
resigned in 1860 and moved to Indiaaapolis.
GEN. JAMES DILL, an Irish barrister, who immigrated to America
and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He was the friend and associate
of Gen. Harrison and Gen. St. Clair, and married the daughter of the
latter. Senator Oliver H. Smith, who studied law with him, thus de-
scribes his preceptor: "He was frank and open in his intercourse with
others, about the common height, wore a long cue, dressed with taste,
features good, eyelids heavy, hair thrown back in front." Judge Will-
iam S. Holman says: "Gen. James Dill is a grand character in the
history of Dearborn County. He was the last of our gentlemen of the
old school. Forty years ago the spirit of Westminster pervaded our
jurisprudence. It appeared even in our forms of procedure. There was
infinitely more of the pomp and show of judicial authority then than
now. When Gen. Dill appeared in court, it was in the full costume of
the gentlemen of the last century — his knee breeches and silver buckles
and venerable cue neatly plaited and flowing over his shoulders,
seemed a mild protest against the leveling tendencies of the age; but
nothing could impair the hold which the gallant soldier and courtly and
witty Irishman had on the friendship of the people of this county. He
remained clerk for many years, and until his death." Gen. Dill was a
member of the Territorial Legislature, and served as speaker of the House
THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 149
in that body. He was a member of the convention which formed the
first constitution of Indiana, and was chairman of the committees on
impeachments and the militia.
JESSE B. THOMAS, one of the first lawyers of Dearborn County, was
born in Hagerstown, Md., in the year 1777, and came west in 1799, and
studied law with his brother, Richard Symmes Thomas, of Bracken
County, Ky. On the organization of Dearborn County, Indiana
Territory, March 7, 1803, he located in Lawrenceburgh as a practicing
lawyer. The first election of members to the Territorial Legislature, was
held January 3, 1805. Jesse B. Thomas was elected a member for
Dearborn County, and served in that body as speaker of the House, Ben-
jamin Chambers, of the same county, being president of the council.
Mr. Thomas served as speaker of House at the first and second session of
the Territorial Legislature, when he was elected a delegate from the
Territory to Congress. On the organization of Illinois Territory, he was
appointed by the President of the United States one of the judges of
that Territory, and removed to Kaskaskia; thence to Cahokia and thence
to Edwardsville. On the formation of a constitution and State govern-
ment of Illinois in 1818, he was a delegate to, and president of, the
convention that formed the constitution of Illinois. Mr. Thomas was
elected by the first State Legislature as United States Senator, and served
in that body ten years. He then removed to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where
he died in 1853.
JUDGE ELIJAH SPARKS was born in Queen Anne County, Va.,
about 1770. At the age of nineteen or twenty he became a professor of re-
ligion and, in 1792, he engaged as a traveling preacher. After one or two
changes he went to Kentucky and commenced the study of law, and, in
the fall of 1800, commenced practice in Campbell County, Ky. He sub-
sequently removed to Bank Lick (now Covington) in the same State, and,
in the spring of 1806, removed to Lawrenceburgh, at which time John
Weaver, at one time sheriff of Dearborn County and a brother to Mrs.
Sparks, was then a United States oflScer, and with a small command occu-
pied one of the block-houses in what is now Dearborn County. On the
16th of January, 1814, Mr. Sparks was made one of the Territorial
judges of Dearborn County, which office he filled until his death in May,
1815, presiding with great credit. The Rev. Allen Wiley alludes to him
as "one of the prominent instruments of the planting, spread, and sym-
metry of Methodism in this part of Indiana."
HORACE BASSETT was born in Mansfield, Conn., January 18,1782;
in early life he immigrated to Vermont; he there studied law with Col.
Mattox, and followed his profession successfully — for some time filling
the office of State's attorney. He removed to Indiana in 1820, and set-
150 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
tied at Aurora. In 1822 he was elected to the Legislature which met at
Corydon, and continued to represent the district in which he lived for
six years. He was a member of the first Legislature that assembled at
Indianapolis. It was through his instrumentality, in about the year
1822, that the township system was adopted as a system local to Dear-
born County. Twenty years later, when, by the adoption of the new
■constitution of the State, legislation concerning townships, county
business was required to be uniform, impressed with the value of
the system, William S. Holman, another member from Dearborn County
in the State Legislature, introduced the bill extending the system to all
the counties of the State. This bill passed, and the township system,
although since greatly modified, became the permanent policy of Indiana.
In 1832 he was one of the commissioners who removed the Indians from
tbis State to the far West, beyond the Mississippi. Two years afterward
he was appointed by Judge Holman clerk of the United States Circuit
and District Courts, which office he held till the time of his death. He
became a resident of Indianapolis in 1840, and died in that city Decem-
ber 18, 1860. Mr. Bassett was universally respected and loved by those
who knew him. His natural intelligence, united with extensive reading,
in which much of his time was spent, rendered him a favorite compan-
ion in the social circle. At his death the committee appointed to draft
and adopt resolutions expressive of the feelings of the membei's of the bar
and officers of the United States Circuit Court said: "Inasmuch as it has
pleased our Heavenly Father to call to Himself our friend and brother,
Horace Bassett, Esq., who for so many years past has been clerk of the
Circuit Court of the United States, we his friends and associates have
met to pay our tribute of respect to and veneration for his memory. It
is not so much his long and useful life as a lawyer, a legislator and an
officer of court, as his high merits as a man and Christian, which we de-
sire to commemorate." * * *
AMOS LANE, born March 1, 1778, was a native of New York, and at
the time he left that State for the West, resided at Aurora, not far from
New York City. Arriving at Cincinnati he halted there a few months,
and in the spring of 1808 he came to Lawrenceburgh, Ind. Mr. Lane
being a lawyer by profession sought admission to the bar, but was refused
license for the sole reason, as he frequently declared, that he was an
ardent friend of Thomas Jefi"erson. This was in the summer of 1808,
and in the fall of the same year he crossed the Ohio River with his family
and located on Judge Piatt's fariu. Not satisfied with his location, he
constructed a huge canoe, and loading his few household goods and
family into it, he floated down the Ohio River to Carrollton, Ky.,
but he was so much dissatisfied, with the first sight he had of the town,
THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 151
that he returned to Boone County, and located directly opposite
Lawrenceburgh on the bank of the river at a place than called Tousey-
town. Here he remained for two years, turning his hand to anything
that would enable him to make bread for his family. In 1811 he located
in Burlington and was admitted to the bar of Kentucky. In 1814 he
returned to Lawrenceburgh and had then no trouble in being admitted
to th^ bar of Indiana. He soon gained a high place in his profession,
especially as a criminal lawyer. He distinguished himself in the case of
the State vs. Amasa Fuller, indicted for murder, appearing as
counsel for the prosecution. In 1816 he was elected a member of the
first Legislature of the State of Indiana and was chosen speaker. He
was re elected in 1817, and was again a member of the Legislature in
1839. At this time he was a leadings pirit in southern Indiana. In
1833 he was elected to Congress over' John Test, an able and popular
Whig. He was re-elected in 1835, defeating Judge George H. Dunn.
In Congress Mr. Lane was an ardent champion of Gen. Jackson, and
won the title of " The "Wheel Horse," so ardently and zealously did he
defend the hero of the Hermitage. As a popular orator Amos Lane had
but few, if any, equals in the West — Corwin and Clay only excepted. He
was fully six feet high, of erect and commanding stature, and possessed a
voice of remarkable force and power, deep and full, over which he had
complete control. His language was ready and fluent, and being master of
invective in a marked degree, woe unto the man who incurred his dis-
pleasure. He had full blue eyes, which were very expressive under
all circumstances, but when he was aroused by feelings of emotion
they were positively piercing. Frequently he would close his teeth
together, and talk through them with a hissing sound that would almost
make one's flesh crawl. Instantly changing his manner, his voice would
become soft and mellow, coupled with the most touching tones, that
would draw teai's from many of his hearers. Amos Lane was abstemious
in his habits, so far as the use of alcoholic liquors were concerned. He
was never known to be intoxicated, and men who were intimate with
him say he did not drink liquor at all. Smoking and chewing tobacco
he detested all through his life, as two tine rows of white teeth afiorded
proof. He was equally abstemious in the use of objectionable language,
never indulging in either profanity or vulgarity. As a lawyer, without
being the most learned or profound, he achieved remarkable success.
Judge W. S. Holman said of him, "He was a man of strong will; at
the forum or on the stump, he neither asked nor gave quarter, but he
commanded an eloquence that could raise a hurricane or melt his
audience to tears." He died September 2, 1849, aged seventy-one years,
and was buried at Lawrenceburgh.
152 HISTORY OF DEAHBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
JUDGE JESSE L. HOLMAN was born at Danville, Ky. , October 24,
1784. During his infancy his father was killed while seeking to relieve
a block-house beleaguered by hostile Indians. "With few opportunities
for instruction, Jesse L., by persistent efforts obtained an English
education, and in later life became accomplished in the higher mathe
matics and in general literature. Before he attained his majority, under
the encouragement of Henry Clay, he published a novel in two volumes,
entitled "The Errors of Education," which obtained a large circulation
for that period. He studied law at Lexington, Ky., in the office of
Henry Clay, and when scarcely of age commenced its practice at Port
William, now Carrollton, Ky., where he married Elizabeth Masterson,
an estimable lady of superior accomplishments. In 1810 he removed to
Indiana Territory and built a cabin on the range of hills that rise
abruptly from the Ohio Kiver south of Aurora, and to this new home,
which he called "Veraestan," he removed his family in the same year.
They brought with them and emancipated a large family of slaves which
had descended to Mrs. Holman from her father. Here he cleared his
farm, and the embellishment of his beautiful rural home was to him a
labor of love. From the time he settled in Indiana Territory until his
death, his life was almost uninterruptedly devoted to the public service.
In 1811 he was appointed by Gov. Harrison, prosecuting attorney of
Dearborn County. In 1814 he represented that county in the Territorial
Lecrislature and was president of the Legislative Council, and in the same
year was appointed by Gov. Posey, judge of the Second Judicial Cir-
cuit of the Territory. In 1816, on the admission of Indiana into the
Union, he was appointed one of the three supreme judges of Indiana
by Gov. Jennings, and remained on the supreme bench fourteen years.
In 1831 he was defeated in the Legislature for United States Senator by
only one vote, although the Legislature was, politically, strongly against
him. In 1832 he was elected superintendent of common schools of
Dearborn County. In 1834 he was appointed by President Jackson,
United States Judge for the District of Indiana, and held that office un-
til his death, March 28, 1842. Justice John McLean said of Judge
Holman: "Of his legal research and acumen he has left enduring
evidence, but what most excited my admiration was his singleness of
purpose; he had no motive but to discharge his public duty uprightly."
Judge Holman was a Baptist preacher, and for years was pastor of the
Baptist Church at Aurora, preaching regularly when not away on public
duty. He organized a Union Sunday-school, believed to be the first in
the State, and was its superintendent up to his death. He laid out the
city of Aurora and was active in the establishment of Indiana College,
and was one of the earliest and most devoted friends of Franklin Col-
THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 153
lege. No man, in the early history of Indiana, was more highly respect-
ed and beloved than Jiidge Jesse L. Holman. One who knew him well,
says: "AVe have often been amused when traveling through the coun-
try, to hear honest-minded farmers speak of Judge Holman, and with
what lively recollections they would refer to his visits, giving day and
date; and often have we heard the remark that this (referring to some
accident or occurrence) took place the fall after Judge Holman was here,
or that that happened a year or two years after Judge Holman visited us
and stopped over night — making his visits an era or important period in
the history of the family."
JAMES T. BROWN was born in Mercer County, Ky., in 1795, of a
Maryland family. He came bo Indiana Territory with his father's
family about 1814, and grew to manhood near Madison, receiving the
best educational advantages then ofifered. AUer being admitted to the
bar he practiced in Decatur County, and soon took a leading position
at the bar of southeastern Indiana. About 1838 he came to Wilming-
ton, and practiced with success in Dearborn County until his death. He
was a man of extraordinary intellectual endowments and a fine lawyer,
with keen wit, inexhaustible humor and great vigor and terseness of ex-
pression. There are those yet living who knew him well, and are well
qualified to give a just estimate of his abilities and learning, who do not
hesitate to rank James T. Brown as a great lawyer and without a super-
ior in the bar of his time in the State of Indiana. He was a very-
eccentric man and had little regard for the customs of polished society.
A fellow member of the bar said of him soon after his death: "He
came to Dearborn County thirty years ago, with a piercing black eye,
a great bald head, an old coat, and no «linen exposed to view; and so he
remained to the last; yet he would have been a very bold or a very reck-
less man who would have dared to joke the old gentleman on his antique
garments or his contempt for ordinary fashions." He never married.
He died at Lawrenceburgh in 1867.
GEORGE H. DUNN was a native of the city of New York and came
to Dearborn County about 1817, an active young man of pleasant manners
and good appearance. He possessed the qualities which enabled him to
secure the confidence and respect of the people. As a lawyer he was
faithful to his clients; his pleadings were exact; his language chaste,
and his manner in argument kindly and conciliating, but his well-
rounded sentences were less effective before a jury of plain men than
the sledge-hammer manners of some of his opponents, yet he was a
lawyer of influence and few men had sti'onger and more lasting friends.
He was elected to the Legislature in 1828, 1832 and 1833; was a mem-
ber of Congress from 1837 to 1839 and State treasurer from 1841 to
154 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
1844. He and Gov. Bigger revised the code of Indiana, and at a later
period he served as judge of the circuit court. While he was in the
Legislature the charter of the State bank and its branches and of the
railroad from Indianapolis to Lawrenceburgh were passed, both of which
were principally the work of Mr. Dunn. July 4, 1833, the com-
pletion of the first mile of railroad in Indiana was celebrated at Shelby-
ville by thousands from all parts of the State, and George H. Dunn was
the hero of the day. Though disappointment followed disappointment
he never gave up the enterprise of a railroad from Lawrenceburgh to
the State capital. To his untiring zeal under every possible discourage-
ment is to be attributed the final success of that road. To him alone
belongs the credit of projecting and carrying on to final completion that
great enterprise, which he did not see fully accomplished until his locks
were silvered with the labors of many years. On the monument over
his grave is appropriately placed the representation of a railroad train.
He died at Lawrenceburgh, January 12, 1854, aged fifty-seven years.
DANIEL S. MAJOR was born in Dearborn County, near Harrison,
September 6, 1808. His father, Judge William Major, was one of the
earliest pioneers of the West. At that early period in the valley of the
Ohio, facilities for education were limited. But the youth, inspired
by a manly and just ambition and thirsting for knowledge, will sel-
dom fail. The plough-boy snatching the elements of learning from the
school books, while the horse rested at the end of the furrow, or spelling
out, with unwearied patience, the rudiments by the blaze of the hickory
bark on the winter fire, is a familiar picture to the land blessed with
liberty.
At an early age young Major entered the Miami University at Oxford,
Ohio. A vigilant student, displaying in early life the patient industry
which gave so marked a character to his long professional career, he
graduated with the full honors of that university in September, 1831,
and in the same month, buoyant with youth and hope, he entered the
clerk's office of Dearborn County, as a deputy clerk and student of law
with Gen. Dill.
He was admitted to the bar September 24, 1832. In a few years he
reached the front rank of his profession; and as early as the year 1842,
in commercial law, the branch of jurisprudence to which he especially
devoted his attention, stood at the head of the bar. At this early day
his practice extended into the supreme and federal courts of the State;
and for thirty years he has been in every leading case tried in the courts
of this county.
In his long professional life Mr. Major was a model of patient indus-
try. In term time a case was seldom called, where he appeared for
THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 155
either the prosecution or defense, without finding him fully prepared
upon the law and the facts.
Mr. Major had the bearing of a gentleman trained in the universi-
ties. He was scrupulously precise and formal in his personal bearing
and address, dignified, yet courteous and aflfable; his mind singularly
well balanced, and capable of long and intense application — displaying
more strength than activity. He could not jump at conclusions, or
seize them intuitively, but reached them by patient and persistent mental
effort. He would not be hurried in the conduct of a cause, but brought
out patiently and persistently every fact; and pressed every consideration
upon the court or jury that justice to his client required.
As an advocate Mr. Major was strong, clear and logical; not eloquent
in the usual sense of the term, seldom embellishing with ornament his
speeches to court or jury; but generally content with a clean and forci-
ble presentation of his case. His utterance was clear and distinct. He
spoke with coolness and determination; yet, when the occasion required,
he displayed some of the highest powers of the advocate.
In politics he was a Whig and afterward a Republican. In private
life he was a man of spotless reputation. He was a Christian gentleman
and an earnest supporter 'of the benevolent and educational enterprises
of his age. He died at his home near Lawrenceburgh, on a beautiful
spot overlooking the Ohio, just forty years after his admission to the
bar, September 23, 1872. An elegant and beautiful tribute to his mem-
ory was given in an address at the coart house by Judge William S.
Holman, from which most of the foregoing sketch has been obtained.
EBENEZER DUMONT was the son of John and Julia L. Dumont,
and was born in Vevay in 1814. At about the age of twenty-one he came
to Dearborn County, and established himself in the practice of law. In
1838 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, and
subsequently held the office of county treasurer. At the breaking-out of
the Mexican war, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth
Indiana Volunteers, and served with distinction for one year, participat-
ing in the capture of Huamantla, the seige of Puebla, and numerous
other engagements. Resuming the practice of law, in 1851 he was
again elected to the House of Representatives, and was chosen speaker.
In 1852 he was elected president of the State Bank of Indiana, which
position he filled until the expiration of the charter of the bank in 1858
or 1859. In connection with this office he was president of the board
of sinking fund commissioners, which office he held at the breaking-out
of the late war. On the organization of the Seventh Indiana Regiment
he was appointed colonel, served with distinction during the three
months' campaign, and upon the reorganization of the regiment for three
9
156 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
years' service, was again selected for the satiie position. Soon after the
battle of Greenbriar, he was commissioned brigadier-general, and assigned
to Kentucky. His health being so poor as to disqualify him for service
in the field, in 1862 he accepted the nomination of the Republican party
of the Indianapolis District for Congress, and served two terms. A short
time before his death he was appointed governor of Idaho. He died at
his residence in Indianapolis, April 17, 1871. Gen. Dumont, as a law-
yer, had few peers. Before a jury he was irresistible; happy in illus-
trations, he brought the most elaborate arguments to the comprehension
of the dullest mind. " With organizing genius, fertility of expedient
and sleepless mental activity, Ebenezer Dumont was a lawyer, soldier
and gentleman, whose fame will never equal the measure of his merit."
GEN. BENJAMIN J. SPOONER was born at Mansfield, Ohio, October
27, 1823, his parents coming from New Bedford, Mass. He was educated
at public and private schools, and when eighteen years old apprenticed
himself to learn the tanner's trade. At the breaking out of the Mexican
war he enlisted for a year in Col. Lane's Indiana Regiment, and was a
second lieutenant. He was at the battle of Buena Vista, but at the expi-
ration of his term of service left the army, and returning to Indiana read
law, and began its practice in Lawrenceburgh. He was made prosecu-
ting attorney of the circuit, and took an active interest in politics as a
Whig, and afterward as a Republican. On the breaking out of the civil
war he was among the earliest volunteers, raising the first company in
Dearborn County, and as lieutenant-colonel in the Seventh Indiana Reg-
iment, he took part in the West Virginia campaign under Gen. Morris,
where the first battles of the war were fought. He re- enlisted at the end
of his three mouths' service, and was lieutenant-colonel of the Fifty- first
Indiana under Col. Streight. His regiment, attached to the Twentieth
brigade, was in winter quarters in Kentucky in 1861-62, and in the spring
was attached to the Sixth Division of the Army of the Ohio, and took
part in the battle of Pittsburgh Landing. Col. Spooner was with the
army in the movements around Corinth, and after that resigned and
came home. He then recruited the Eighty-third Regiment and was
placed in command, taking part in all the engagements in and around
Vicksburg, until the fall of that place in the summer of 1863, when,
assigned to Gen. Sherman's army, he was at Chattanooga, Lookout Moun-
tain, Resaca, Dallas, Dalton and Kenesaw Mountain. At the last named
place, June 27, 1864, Gen. Spooner was wounded in the left arm so severely
by sharpshooters that amputation was necessaiy. His wound unfitted
him for active service, and in April, 1865, he resigned. He was imme-
diately appointed United States Marshal for Indiana by President Lin-
coln, the last appointment Mr. Lincoln made, and held that ofiice until
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 157
1879, when he resigned. In the railroad strike of 1877, he was Urm in
the discharge of his duty, and aided much in restoring order. During
the war he was a brave soldier, and after the battle of Mission Eidge he
was presented a handsome sword by the non-commissioned officers and
privates of his regiment, in testimony of his services there and on other
fields. He died at Lawrenceburgh April 8, 1881.
JOHN SCHWAETZ was born in Bavaria in 1831 and received a classi-
cal education. He participated in the Revolution of 1848 and was com-
pelled to flee from his native land. He landed in New York in 1850, and
on June 7, 1853, arrived at Lawrenceburgh. He first served as a clerk and
book-keeper, and later studied law under James T. Brown. About 1858
he formed a law partnership with Benjamin J. Spooner. For four years
he was mayor, and for the same length of time city attorney. He enlisted
in the civil war and served as captain one year. He was an extensive
reader, and had a large and well assorted library of miscellaneous works,
and the largest law library in the county. He possessed a fine legal
mind of wonderful analytical power and scope, and was able to unravel
the intricacies of the law with a facility seldom seen. He died at Law-
renceburgh in 1881.
CHAPTER X.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
Practice of Medicine in Pioneer Times— The Materia Medic a of the
Early Doctors— Early Charges for Medical Services— District
Medical Societies— Review of Epidemics— Character of the Pio-
neer Physicians— Sketches of Some Deceased Physicians.
OWING to a variety of causes we have found it a task of no small
difficulty to prepare a history of the medical profession in Dear-
born and Ohio Counties. We have not the data to be derived from the
records of a medical society whose existence was continued through a
long series of years. It is to be regi-etted that some one of the early
physicians has not undertaken to give us an account of the pioneers of
the medical profession in Dearborn County when that county
embraced a large area of southeast Indiana. The pioneers of this pro-
fession were worthy of a prominent place in the history of their county,
and such sketches of these men as we have collected from many sources
158 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
and here present in a permanent form, will be prized not only by the
intellif^ent members of the medical profession but by others as well. If
the pioneer physicians of this part of the Ohio Valley have left no rec-
ords of their practice and experience, the failure should not surprise
us. Generally they were not men of scientific attainmeots or even of
liberal education. The state of society in which they lived could not be
favorable to the cultivation of science or the literature of their profes-
sion.
In order to realize the 'difficulties and disadvantages the early physi-
cians labored under, it is necessary to cousider the times in which they
lived. Dr. Daniel Drake, of^Cincinnati, in an address on "Early Medi-
cal Times," delivered in 1852, has given a striking picture of the every-
day life of the pioneer physician:
"Every physician was then a country practitioner, and often rode
twelve or fifteen miles on bridle paths to some isolated cabin. Occa-
sional rides of twenty or even thirty miles were performed on horseback,
over roads which no kind of carriage could travel over. The ordinary
charc^e was 25 cents a mile, one half being deducted, and the other paid
in provender for his horse or produce for his family. These pioneer
physicians were moreover their own bleeders aud cuppers, and practiced
dentistry, not less, certainly, than physic; charged a quarter of a dol-
lar for extracting a single tooth, with an understood deduction if two or
more were drawn at the same time. In plugging teeth tin-foil was used
instead of gold-leaf, which had the advantage of not showing so con-
spicuously. Still further, every physician for the first twelve or fifteen
years was his own apothecary, and ordered little importations of cheap
and inferior medicines by the dry goods merchants once a year, taking
care to move in the matter long before they were needed. From twenty-
five to thirty days was the required'time of transportation from Philadel-
phia to Brownsville, and as much more by river to Cincinnati. Thus
from four to five months were required for the importation of a medicine
which, at this time, being ordered by telegraph and sent by express, may
be received in two days, or a sixtieth part of the time. Thus science
has lengthened seconds into minutes. The prices at which these medi-
cines were sold difi'ered widely from those of the present day. Thus an
emetic, a Dover's powder, a dose of Glauber's salt or a night draught of
Pareo-oric and Antimonial Wine, haustus anodymis, as it was learnedly
called, was put at 25 cents, a vermifuge or blister at 50, and an ounce of
Peruvian bark at 75 cents for pale, and $1 for the best red or yellow. On
the other hand personal services were valued very low. For a bleeding,
25 cents; for a sitting up all night, $1, and for a visit, from 25 to 50
cents, according to circumstances or character of the patient.
THE iMEDICAL PEUFESSION. 159
Many articles in common use then have, in half a century, been
superseded or fallen more or less into neglect. I can recollect balsam of
sulphur, balsam of Peru, Glauber's salt, flowers of benzoin, Huxham's
tincture, spermaceti (for internal use), melampodium, flowers of zinc,
ammoniaret of copper, dragon's blood, elemi, gamboge, bitter apple, nux
vomica, and red, pale and yellow bark. On the other hand, we have
. gained since that day the various salts of quinine and morphine, strich-
nine, creosote, iodine and its preparations, hydi'ocyanic acid, ergot, col-
lodion, sulphate ot magnesia and chloroform.
Indeed, in half a century our materia medica has undergone a decided
change, partly by the discovery of new articles and partly by the extrac-
tion of the active principles of the old. The physician often carried
medicines in his pocket and dealt them out in the sick room; but the
common practice was to return home, compound and send them out. But
few of you have seen the genuine old doctor's shop of the last century,
or regaled your olfactory nerves in the mingled odors which, like incense
to the god of physic, rose from brown paper bundles, bottles stopped
with worm-eaten corks, and open jars of ointment, not a whit behind
those of the apothecary in the days of Solomon. Yet such a place is
very well for a student ; however idle he will be always absorbing a little
medicine, especially if he sleeps beneath the greasy counter."
EARLY CHAKGES FOR MEDICAL SERVICES.
The first Legislature of the State of Indiana undertook to regulate
the compensation of physicians for professional services, and to prevent
over-charging. An act approved December 24, 1816, provides: "It
shall not be lawful for any physician or surgeon to charge or receive
more than 12^ cents per mile for every mile he shall travel in going to,
and returning home from, the place of residence (for the time being) of
his patient, with an addition of 100 per cent for traveling in the night."
The following is a list of charges recommended by the Indiana State
Medical Society held at Cory don December 11, 1822:
Visit 25 cents toll 00
Mileage ^ 25
Venesection 25 cents to 50
Pulv. Febr.
6i " m
Emetics 12| - 25
Attendance through the day $2 50 to 5 00
night 5 00
Obstetrics 5 qq
Extracting tooth 25
Reducing luxation 5 qO to 10 00
Amputation 30 00 to 50 00
160 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETIES.
An effort to establish medical societies in the State by legislative
enactment was made at an early period. Section 1 of act approved by
Gov. Jennings December 24, 1816, reads: "Be it enacted by the Gen-
eral Assembly of the State of Indiana, that for the purpose of regulat-
ing the practice of physic and surgery in this State, each circuit as laid '
off for holding circuit courts shall compose one medical district, to be
known as first, second and third medical districts in the State of
Indiana, according to the name of the circuit." It was further provided
in this act that in each district there should be a board of medical cen-
sors, who were required to admit to merabftrship every physician or sur-
geon residing or wishing to practice in the district, who should, " on
examination before them, give proof of their qualification to practice
either profession and reasonable evidence of their moral character."
An act approved January 18, 1820, organized four medical districts,
and gave the State Medical Society authority to establish as many addi-
tional as it might deem expedient.
The State Medical Society was first organized in 1820, and held its
meetings at Corydon. then capital of the State, until 1826, when it met
at Indianapolis.
The act of 1816, above referred to, named as censors for the third
district,- in which Dearborn County was included, Drs. Jabez Percival,
D. F. Sackett, D. Oliver, John Howe and Ezra Ferris, and authorized
them to meet at the house of Walter Armstrong, in the town of Law-
renceburgh, on the fii'st Monday in June, in the year 1817, for the pur-
pose of licensing physicians. Dr. Sackett, who was appointed a member
of this board, then resided at Salisbury. No evidence has been found
to show that this board of censors ever met to carry out the purposes for
which they were appointed.
An act of the Legislature, approved January 30, 1830, says in its pre-
amble, that owing to defects in the previous law, the medical societies
existing have never been legally organized, and that the provisions of the
law have not induced a large portion of qualified men to become mem-
bers of any medical society, or been sufficient to guard against the
licensing of unqualified persons. The new act provided that district
medical societies may be composed of all persons of good moral character
residing in their respective districts, who have been regularly licensed to
practice medicine in the State, or have been reputable practitioners in
the State for two years next preceding the passage of the act, or who have
graduated at any regular medical college in the United States.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 161
HISTORY OF EPIDEMICS.*
"The object of this paper is to put on record a brief review of the
epidemics that have prevailed in southeastern Indiana, or more partic-
ularly in Dearborn, Ripley and Ohio Counties, during the last fifty years,
and also to direct your attention to the changes which have taken place
in our endemic malarial diseases. Of several of the epidemics we allude
to no notice has yet been published.
"The first epidemic we direct your attention to was an epidemic of
cholera in Dearborn County, which occurred in 1833. This was before
I commenced the practice of medicine, but as the facts have never yet
been published, and I have obtained them from a reliable source, and
they are still remembered by many of our old citizens, I take the liberty
of presenting them.
"A steamboat ascending the Ohio River in the month of May, 1833,
landed near the mouth of Tanner's Creek to bury one of the deck hands
who had died of cholera. Two men, one an old citizen of Dearborn
County, by the name of Page Cheek, were fishing near the place this
boat landed. The officers of the boat, seeing these men, employed them
to bury this body, which they did. All the next day Cheek, who lived
near the mouth of Wilson's Creek, about a mile from Tanner's Creek,
plowed in the corn-field, apparently well, but during the night he was
suddenly attacked with cholera, and died after a short illness. His
brother-in-law, Eli Green, went with his wife to the funeral. They re-
sided near Hartford, about six miles from Cheek's residence. Within a
week both Green and his wife died with cholera, and in a few days after
their deaths three of their children also died, making five deaths out of
this family of seven persons. The disease spread through the neighbor-
hood, and soon appeared at Aurora, where a large number of deaths oc-
curred, among the number some of the most prominent citizens. It is
impossible now to ascertain the number of deaths which occurred, as no
account of this epidemic in Dearborn County was ever published. The
disease was regarded at that time as being new, and the epidemic as be-
ing the most fatal that had ever visited this part of the country.
"In 1838 the Laughery Valley was visited by a malignant form of
malarial fever, different from anything that I have seen since, with the
exception probably of a few sporadic cases. Intermittents were prevalent
that autumn over the whole country, but along this valley we had a
modification of remittent, with what we regarded at that time as con-
gestive fever. The patient would be seized by a slight chill, followed
almost immediately by profound coma or congestion of some organ, and
162 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
very frequently died before a physician could be procured. In other
cases the chill was followed by fever, delirium and great irritability of
the stomach. There was generally in such cases a remission, but no well-
marked intermission. The skin and conjunctiva assumed in a few days
a yellowish or jaundiced appearance. These cases we regarded at that
time as bilious remittent fever, but we probably had every form and type
of malarial fever in this locality, such as simple intermittent fever, re-
mittent fever, bilious fever, and pernicious or congestive fever ip various
forms, and I think I can safely say that every family residing along this
valley for eight miles from the Ohio River were more or less unwell, and
in many families all were bedfast.
"We have annually, at the present time, autumnal and intermittent
fevers in various forms, but I never see now cases of pernicious con-
gestive fever, or even bilious fever, similar to what we had at that period
along the Laughery Valley. The country was then new, the land was
exceedingly rich, there were extensive swamps and a dense forest, except
around the log-cabins of the inhabitants. Since then the valley has been
cleared, the swamps drained, and the land cultivated, and the congestive
fevers, which were occasionally seen fifty years ago, have disappeared.
"In 1842 and 1843 epidemic erysipelas prevailed indifferent parts of
the United States. It made its appearance in southeastern Indiana in
the winter of 1842 and 1843. It was known by the popular names of
black tongue, sore throat, swelled head, etc. We heard of it prevailing
in Ripley County as a malignant disease, and before it reached Aurora,
in Dearborn County, we heard that a physician, who resided toward the
western portion of the county, had died of the black tongue, The phy-
sician residing at Wilmington had a severe attack. I was called to attend
him, which placed at once a large number of his patients under my care,
and I soon had extensive experience with the disease, which gave me an
opportunity of seeing it in all its varieties.
" In the month of July, 1843, after we*had seen notices in the news-
papers that influenza was prevailing as an epidemic in Pennsylvania,
New York, Massachusetts and other Eastern States, it suddenly made its
appearance in southeastern Indiana, and within a few days after it first
appeared a very large proportion of our inhabitants were under its influ-
ence. The disease itself was seldom fatal, but it occasionally gave rise to
other diseases which were attended with danger, and the origin of a
number of cases of phthisis pulmonalis was attributed to this epidemic.
"In 1848 we had a remarkable epidemic of scarlet fever. During the
time that I had been practicing medicine I had had considerable exper-
ience with scarlatina; the cases were generally mild with a few exceptions.
This year, however, we saw the disease in a new form. We heard of its
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 163
prevalence in Switzerland County, and were informed that a large num-
ber of children had died from the disease. It was supposed to have been
brought to Aurora by the boy who carried the mail, as he had but
recently recovered from an attack of scarlatina. Two children were taken
unwell on the same day; they resided in the same part of the town, but
in different houses. They both died within a short time of each other,
and the disease spread through the city. It presented a variety of
symptoms. In some instances the violence of the disease was concen-
trated upon the throat, in others upon the brain, producing convulsions
or coma; in other cases the patient seemed to sink as if from a shock,
and in other cases there was violent gastro-enteric irritation — vomiting
aud purging, with but little rash. An account of this epidemic was pub-
lished in the North American Medico- Chirurgical Review.
" In 1856 scarlet fever again prevailed in southeastern Indiana and
at Aurora as an epidemic, but this time in so mild a form as scarcely to
require medical treatment. AVhy should the disease appear at the same
place, apparently under the same circumstances, at one time in so
malignant a type, and at another in so mild a form?
"In the spring of 1849 cholera, which was prevailing as an epidemic
in the United States, made its appearance in Aurora, and assumed its
most malignant form. It for a time was principally confined to a small
section of our town, including the portion in which I resided, which was
the most dry and elevated, and was regarded as the most healthy part of
our city. In this section of the town there seemed to be an accumulation
of infection, for more than half the inhabitants died. I was suddenly
attacked with the disease while attending patients in the night, and my
whole family, one after another, was taken down. My eldest son died
after only a few hours' illness, and my youngest child sank to what
appeared the lowest stage of collapse from which a patient could recover.
In watching the progress of this epidemic, it appeared to me that chol-
era, like other diseases, presented a diversity of symptoms, and that the
diarrhoea that generally accompanies this disease, and at that time was
regarded as only a premonitory symptom, was in reality a form of chol-
era, which occasionally gave rise to the most malignant cases.
" Following the cholera a malignant form of dysentery prevailed as an
epidemic. As it appeared in some instances to be intimately associated
with cholera, appearing among our rural population immediately after
the introduction of well-marked cases of cholera, I regarded it as but one
of the modifications of this disease. We have never had an epidemic of
contagious malignant dysentery similar to what we had at that time,
except during or immediately after the prevalence of cholera.
"Cholera pi'evailed as an epidemic in southeastern Indiana in 1854,
164 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
1866 and 1873. There were not as many cases in these visitations as there
were in 1849, which we thought was due to the rigid system of disinfec-
tion which was adopted, particularly so in 1866 and 1873, and also to
the patients being more isolated.
" From 1836 to 1856 we occasionally had epidemics of a disease
which was known in those days as milk sickness. This disease was con-
fined to a section of Dearborn County, between six and seven miles in
length and three or four in breadth, extending from what is known as
King's Ridge in a southerly direction to near Hartford. This was prob-
ably the most dry and elevated portion of Dearborn County, and that
portion of the county most free from intermittent, remittent or malarial
fevers. During these epidemics the cattle died in this [^locality with a
disease known by the name of 'trembles.' Some farmers lost nearly all
their stock. This sickness and loss of cattle caused a depreciation in the
value of the farms in this section of the county. The premonitory
symptoms of this disease were a remarkable feeling of lassitude, loss of
appetite, headache, coated tongue, and a burning sensation in the epi-
gastric region. After a variable period these symptoms were followed
by nausea and frequent vomiting and a low grade of fever of a continuous
type, and in all cases there was obstinate constipation. The fluid vom-
ited was generally mucous, 'tinged of a dark or greenish color. There
was seldom a well-marked chill, neither was there a well-marked
intermission in the fever. The fever was nearly always of a low
grade. I am well aware that writers have regarded milk sickness
as only a modification of our malarial fevers, but it appears to
me that this disease must arise from some cause entirely different
from the malaria that produces our intermittent fevers, for in
southeastern Indiana milk sickness occurred in that' portion of the
country where malarial diseases were not known, while along the valley of
the Laughery, where malarial diseases were the most malignant, milk
sickness never occurred and the cattle did not die with the 'trembles.'
" For the last twenty years I have not heard of a well-marked case of
milk sickness in this section of the country where the disease was at one
time so common, neither have I heard of cattle dying of the ' trembles.'
The country has since been cleared, the ground cultivated, and milk
sickness and the disease amongst the cattle known as ' trembles ' have
entirely disappeared. The land which was once depreciated in value on
account of these diseases, is now ranked amongst the most valuable in
Dearborn County. This is additional evidence that the removal of the
forests in many localities, so far from being an evil, is conducive to
health.
" It was many years after I commenced the practice of medicine before
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 165
I saw a case of cerebro-spinal meningitis. Now we occasionally have
cases, and the disease is probably on the increase. The same may be
said of diphtheria.
"In 1862 we had an epidemic of purpura, generally known by the
name of spotted fever, in which there were a number of deaths. Some
of the patients died within twenty-four hours from the first symptoms of
the attack.
"Within the last forty years we have had very remarkable diseases
amongst the inferior animals. The epizootic amongst the swine, known
as hog cholera, has destroyed thousands upon thousands of these animals.
The epizootic amongst the horses in 1873, is so recent as to be familiar
to all
"Looking back then over a period of nearly fifty years, we have seen
in southeastern Indiana a number of epidemics, and have seen our
malarial diseases assume different forms and undergo very marked
changes."
THE PIONEER PHYSICIANS.
The earlier physicians who practiced in Dearborn County when it
included several counties of the present time, were of the heroic school
and made liberal use of the lancet and calomel. In their treatment they
relied largely on purging, bleeding, blistering and salivation. The
quantities of calomel used by some of the old physicians are sufficient to
startle the modern scientific practitioner.
While some of these earlier physicians were men of good natural
abilities and were leading men in their communities, few of them had
received a degree from a medical school or from any institution of
learning. In their youth medical instruction was chiefly given in the
irregular form of medical pupilage. In some sections a system of
apprenticeship existed, the young medical pupil being indentured for a
period from three to seven years. At the conclusion of the pupilage,
the preceptor signed a certificate which supplied the place of a diploma
As late as 1825 there were but two medical colleges west of the Alle-
ghanies. During his pupilage the young medical student learned to
compound medicines for his preceptor and to grind quicksilver into
unguentum mercuriale, but the facilities for instruction were meager
compared with those of the present day. There were few good medical
libraries; periodical medical literature was in its infancy; work in the
chemical laboratory was not expected of the student, and practical
anatomy was made a felony by statute, the populace being inimical to
dissection, a mob rising against it as late as 1820.
DR. JABEZ PERCIVAL was born in 1759 and died in 1841. His
former residence was near New Amsterdam, N. Y. Just what his early
166 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
advantages were in obtaining a knowledge of his profession, the writer
is not informed. He practiced medicine for some time previous to
removing West. He came to Lawrenceburgh in 1801. The connty being
new and sparsely settled, he practiced over a large extent of country.
He was favored with an iron constitution and will. These sustained
him in great exposure and labor, incident to the practice of medicine in
that day. It is believed he did not refuse to attend to calls from any
class of persons, night or day. He thought little of the ornate in his
profession; the tastes of the fastidious were not much consulted in the
administration of medicines. Adjuvants as placebos to remedies, in
heroic practice, were not very numerous. Notwithstanding he was
thought to be skillful; to have real merit as a physician and surgeon.
He seemed to be quite at home' in surgery, if he did call the dura-mater
the striffin of the brain, and, when he thought necessary, did not hesi-
tate to perform even capital operations. He possessed many pe-
culiar traits of character, and was a man of great courage as well as
endurance. We here give several incidents as illustrations: At one
time he was thrown from his horse, resulting in the dislocation of one
hip-joint. Several persons gathered around, offering their assistance.
He refused their help, crept to a fence and got upon his horse and rode
home, without the reduction of the head of the femur. He was chosen,
and for a time acted as magistrate. A Mr. , a man of great phys-
ical power, often exhibited it in fighting with such as he supposed
thought themselves his equal. Having broken the peace, the constable
an3 by-standers were commanded to arrest him. They feared to take
hold of the desperado. This did not suit the doctor-squire. He com-
menced upon the refractory man, but as the Doctor advanced, he received
a lick with a bludgeon that broke his right arm. Nothing daunted,
though much the smaller man, he seized the culprit with his left hand,
and held him until the sight of his heroism brought sufHcient assistance
to secure him. Another incident: In the days when there were fugi-
tives from labor, there were also cases of kidnapping. Several persons
of African descent had been arrested and taken on a boat. Those who
held them threatened to shoot any person who attempted their rescue.
No one seemed willing to take the risk of interfering. The Doctor
believed they were kidnapped, entered upon the boat and took them from
their claimants. Another case of a different character, in the exercise of
his official functions: At a time when engaged in driving oxen, a gen-
tleman and lady rode up and informed the Squire that they desired to
be married. He asked to see the license. Looking up, he inquired:
"Do you promise to live together till death shall part you?" Answer,
"Yes." "I pronounce you husband and wife. Gee, Buck; get up!" Dr.
THE MEDICAL PEOFESSION. 167
John Percival, son of Jabez Percival, had probably better opportunities
for thorough medical education than his father. We are unable to say
whether he was a graduate or not. One of his nephews, with whom we
have spoken on the subject, thinks he was. He is said to have attended
lectures at Troy, N. Y. He practiced medicine for some time in con-
nection with Dr. Grubbs, at Burlington, Ky. He afterward moved to
Lawrenceburgh in 1825. He continued here in reputable practice till
about 1837. He moved to Missouri, and probably died about 1841,
from injury to the spine, the efifects of a fall.
DR. EZRA FERRIS was born at Stanwich, Conn., April 26,1783. His
father, who was also a native of that village, six years after the birth of
Ezra, determined to emigrate to the far West. The enterprise at that
time was so novel and daring that it drew together a number of people
to witness the departure. Dr. Ferris, in his old age, wrote that although
he was only six years old at the time, he had a distinct and vivid recol-
lection of the occasion. His father, September 20, 1789, with his
family, and accompanied by two other families, took their departure. As
the little party of emigrants took their seats in wagons and moved down
the road, they were surrounded by a crowd on every side ready to pre-
dict that they would either fall a sacrifice to savage cruelty or be
drowned in descending the Western rivers. But nothing could overcome
the courage of the little company. Their route was along the road on
the north side of Long Island Sound to New York City, thence through
New Jersey and Pennsylvania and over the Allegheny Mountains to the
Monongahela River; thence, by boats to Fort Miami, about three-fourths
of a mile below the mouth of the Little Miami, where they arrived
December 12, 1789, having been two months and twenty days on the
journey. There were, at that time, some thirty or forty families living
in the fort, without the restraints of civil law and destitute of almost
all kinds of provisions except such as could be obtained from the woods,
in which hovered the hostile savages. An apartment in the fort, about
sixteen feet square, was assigned to the family, in which they resided
for a time. The first five years Ezra Ferris spent at Columbia were
during the horrors of an Indian war. He saw the dejection of the
spirits of the pioneers when Harmar's expedition failed and St. Clair
was disastrously defeated, and participated in the rejoicing over Wayne's
victory. He has given a vivid picture of the hardships and deprivations
the settlers at Columbia were compelled to undergo during this period.
"Many of them," he says, "had been raised in opulence and had in-
dulged in luxuries and enjoyed all the necessaries of life, now removed
far from their former homes, where nothing but the most common fare
could be had, and that often in stinted measure, were cast down though
168 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
not forsaken. Add to the want of bread, the mortification an Ameri-
can mother (who had been at all times in the habit of clothing her chil-
dren comfortably, and sometimes ornamenting them to please her fancy),
must feel to see them clad in rags and dirt, for the want of materials to
make new clothes of, or soap to wash them when dirty, and you will see
enough to discourage and distress them."
Ezra Ferris had the benefit of such schools as could be supported at
Columbia during the Indian war, and after the return of peace, ob-
tained a good education. When a young man he studied in a good
school in one of the Eastern States, and his education was quite a liberal
one for the son of an early western emigrant. When quite a young man
he was licensed as a Baptist preacher at the Duck Creek Baptist Church
and was afterward ordained. He also studied medicine. For some
years he taught a school at Lebanon, Ohio, when he removed to Law-
renceburgh and there practiced medicine and also preached to the desti-
tute Baptist churches of that vicinity. He was elected a member of the
convention which formed the first constitution of Indiana, and in that
body was chairman of the committee on the elective franchise and elec-
tions. He also served as a member of the State Legislature. On the
organization of the State Government he was appointed by the Legisla-
ture one of the censors for licensing physicians in the third medical
district. Before he became an old man he retired from the active prac-
tice of medicine, but continued his drug store. He also continued to
preach at Lawrenceburgh and at Salera.
Dr. Ferris was a most useful man. He was modest and retiring, but
highly respected by all. He was sti-ongly attached to his own branch of
the church and was a sincere and deeply pious man. In politics he was
a Whig. He was a man of fixed principles and his friends always knew
where to find him. In 1851 he published a series of articles on the
early settlement of the Miami Valley. A. H. Dunlevy, in his History of
the Miami Baptist Association, wrote: "Elder Ferris knew more of the
early history of the Miami country than any man living at the time of
his death. He was not a man to be prejudiced, as is too often the case,
so as to form unjust opinions or give undue coloring to any transactions
related by him." The reader will find in this work copious selections
from his writings. Dr. Ferris was twice married. He died at Lawrence-
burgh, April 19, 1857.
DR. JEREMIAH H. BROWER was born in New York City in 1798.
He was descended from one of those Dutch families that immigrated to the
colony in an early period of its history, and aided in laying the founda-
tions of its present greatness. His father was a physician, and educated
his son for the profession of his choice. It is believed that for a year or
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 169
more he enjoyed the superior advantages of the private tutelage of that
eminent surgeon and physician, the elder Mot. In the year 1819 the
family immigrated to the West, and settled in Indiana; the father, Abra-
ham Brower, in Lawrenceburgh, and the son at Elizabethtown, Ohio,
where they were respectively engaged in the practice of their profession.
Dr. Jeremiah H. Brower assumed his field of labor, in which he continued
in an active and exclusive practice until within a year or two of his
death. The above dates show that Dr. Brower, for a period of thirty-
five years, was in active and extensive practice in the city in which he
died. To the practice of this profession he brought #more than an ordi-
nary share of learning, zeal and native ability. As a man, a citizen, as a
physician, in line, in all the relations of life he discharged his varied
obligations to society in a manner creditable to himself and useful to the
community in which he lived, so that himself and his friends could say
without ostentation, that the world was better and wiser for his having
lived in it. Commencing his professional life as early as 1819, he was
closely identified in interest and community of feeling in all of the so-
cial, moral and educational enterprises of the community, always a prom-
inent and self-sacrificing laborer for their advancement, and his name
and memory will be long held in grateful remembrance by the trusting
and confiding community in which he lived and labored. His ardent
patriotism and characteristic benevolence were illustrated in his readi-
ness to abandon the comforts of home and a lucrative practice to hasten
to the bloody battle-field, to the reeking and malarious hospital ship, to
aid and comfort the brave and dying defenders of an imperiled country.
Among the medical men of Indiana, with whom he had a large and inti-
mate acquaintance, his abilities early pointed him out as a fit person to
be honored with the presidency of the Indiana State Medical Society, a
trust that he discharged with credit to himself and usefulness to the pro-
fession. Dr. Brower's naturally feeble constitution at this period of life,
was impaired by his visit and exposures in the South in 1865. He re-
turned with greatly impaired health and strength to the duties of his
practice, but his constitution had received a shock from which he never
fully recovered. He died August 1, 1866, aged sixty-eight years, and
was buried at Lawrenceburgh.
DR. DAVID FISHEH was born in the State of Vermont about the
year 1780. But little is known of his early education, or at what time he
commenced the study of medicine, or whether he was a graduate of any
medical college, but he acquired a good medical education and obtained
a certificate of qualification from a medical board of examiners in Ver-
mont and practiced his profession in that State until 1812. He then im-
migrated to Peru, N. Y., and practiced his profession at that place until
170 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
1818. He then removed to Coshocton, Ohio, and remained there a little
over a year. He next immigrated to Wilmington, Jnd., and, a few years
afterward, to Aurora. He was one of the company that purchased the
ground and assisted in laying out the plat of the town of Aurora. He
purchased Lots 153 and 154, on the corner of Fourth and Water Streets;
here he erected what was considered in those days a large building, and
kept a hotel. This was carried on in connection with the practice of his
profession, which often extended for ten or twenty miles into the country.
He resided in Aurora until about 1826 or 1828, when he removed to a
farm back of Rising Sun. On this farm he resided, occasionally chang-
ing his residence to Rising Sun, until 1845, when he was disabled by a
stroke of apoplexy, which incapacitated him for the active duties of his
profession. In January, 1851, he received another stroke of apoplexy,
and died quietly at his home in Rising Sun. As a physician he was
faithful; neither bad roads nor stormy weather kept him from visiting his
patients. He was remarkable for the correctness of his diagnosis and
was opposed to active depletion in the treatment of disease. As a man
he was noted rather for strong natural sense than culture, yet he was
always a diligent reader of standard medical books. He was a zealous
member of a district medical society which had been organized in this
portion of the State, and which continued in existence until about 1825.
DR. MATHIAS HAINES was born in Raymond, N. H., Decem-
ber 30, 1786. His earlier years were spent on a farm, during the
summer months assisting his father. In the winter he attended the
common schools. When near the age of manhood he obtained, by his
own efforts, the advantages of a year or two at the academy in Peacham,
Vt, after which he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Sheed, of
Peacham, Vt. On completing the prescribed course of study, he com-
menced the practice of his profession in the northern part of Vermont.
In 1816, in company with his twin brother, he came West, riding all the
way on horseback, and located in Rising Sun, which at that time was
within the bounds of Dearborn County. Dr. Haines was a member of
the society of Free Masons, and as early as 1819, in company with others,
organized a lodge in Rising Sun, and continued an active member during
his life. He married Miss Elizabeth Brower, at Lkwrenceburgh, October
22, 1822. In the winter of 1845-46, he united with the Presbyterian
Church of Rising Sun, and soon after was elected an elder, and as such
frequently represented the church in the Presbyteries, and also as dele-
gate of the Presbytery in the General Assembly of the United States. In
the spring of 1846 from failing health and repeated and severe attacks
of illness, he gave up the active duties of his profession and removed to
a farm about two miles from the city, where he lived for six or seven
S:S^^Sg5*?««*i^
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 173
years; he then sold his farm and removed back to Rising Sun, where he
resided until his death, which occurred January 21, 1863, at the age
of seventy-seven years and twenty-one days. Dr. Haines was active and
liberal in promoting the intellectual improvement of the community.
His efforts, in common with others, to advance the educational interests of
the city, resulted in building a house for an academy which was popular
and very successful for many years until superseded by our present system
of common schools. Dr. Haines was an affable and courteous gentleman,
a true Christian in every sense of the word, and for forty years enjoyed
the confidence of the community in which he lived, as a safe and able
physician.
DR. HENRY J. BOWERS was born in Massachusetts in 1801. His
father was an Episcopal minister and gave his son a good English educa-
tion. At the age of twenty he immigrated to Dearborn County, settled at
Lawrenceburgh, and commenced the study of medicine. In 1822 he mar-
ried Miss Rispah Morgan, at Lawrenceburgh. In 1824 he commenced the
practice of his profession at Moore' s_Hill, and soon after bought a farm
near this place, portions of which were in Dearborn and Ripley Counties,
the farm being on the dividing line. His residence was in Ripley
County and office in Dearborn. In 1856 he built a large residence near
Moore'sHill, in Dearbord County, and resided at this home until his death,
which occurred in January, 1866, aged sixty-five. He was elected a mem-
ber of the Legislature in Ripley County in 1840, andre-elected twice, and
was also elected twice to the Senate. In 1850 he was elected a member
of the convention to revise the State constitution. He took great inter-
est in the erection of the Moore's Hill College and was one of the prin-
cipal stockholders in the building. Dr. Bowers was remarkable for his
energy. He was a good political speaker, popular in his manners, and
had an extensive practice both in Dearborn and Ripley Counties.
DR. NELSON HORATIO TORBET was born in Pennsylvania in the
year 1800. He studied the profession of medicine in Philadelphia and mi-
grated directly from that city to Wilmington, Dearborn Co.,Ind. At this
place he practiced his profession for more than forty years. He was pop-
ular in his manners and was elected to the Legislature in 1834 — also was
elected treasurer of the county in 1844. While on a visit to Kansas, in
1873, he contracted diseases which terminated his life at the age of
seventy- three. At one period he had an extensive practice, embracing a
circuit of many miles over the rough country around Wilmington. He
was a jovial companion and was always regarded as an honest man.
DR. BASIL JAMES was born in Frederick County, Md., in 1797,canie
to the West with his father's family in 1807, first stopping at Lawrence-
burgh, but for educational purposes the family removed to Cincinnati
174 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
and remained two years. In 1812, on account of Indian troubles, the
family, excepting the father and his eldest sou, Pinkney, were taken to
Louisville, Ky., for security, whore they remained until the fall of 1813,
when all the family finally settled in Ohio County. Dr. James was
identified with Rising Sun from its foundation, his father being one of
the founders of the place. He practiced medicine here during all the
active years of his life, giving up the profession only a few years before
his death on account of age and feebleness. Paralysis came upon him
about 1875, and although he recovered to some extent, yet he continued
comparatively helpless, and died August 8, 1877.
DR. ROBERT GILLESPIE was a native of Leith, Scotland, where he
was born in 1793. He graduated at the University of Edinburgh, receiv-
ing the degree of Ch. M. (Master of Surgery). In 1819 he immigrated to
America and settled in Cass Township, Ohio County, then in Dearborn
County, where he practiced medicine with success until his death. Dr.
Gillespie's opportunities for medical instruction were much superior to
those enjoyed by most of his associates. He was considered a leading
physician and surgeon in Ohio and adjoining counties, and he enjoyed an
enviable reputation both professionally and socially. He died in 1846.
Dr. William Gillespie, of Rising Sun, is his son.
DR. HUGH T. WILLIAMS was born in Breckinridge County, Ky.,
May 27, 1812, and was the son of Rev. Otho Williams. He graduated at
the Louisville Medical Institute in 1842. He practiced medicine at
Helena, Ark., until 1845, when he removed to Rising Sun, where he re-
sided until his death, most of the time engaged in the active practice of
medicine. His practice was large and lucrative. In the last years of his
life he practiced his profession in connection with his son. Dr. Hugh
D. Williams. He was largely identified with the growth and enterprise
of Rising Sun, and was for many years a member of the council and
school board. He represented Ohio and Switzerland Counties one term
in the Legislature, and during the war was appointed by Gov. Morton
draft commissioner and enrolling officer of Ohio County. He was a
member of the Methodist Church, the Masonic fraternity and of the
I. O. O. F. Dr. Williams was possessed of a strong mind and was a
well-informed man. He died December 22, 1879, leaving an only son
and a large number of relatives to mourn their loss.
DR. MYRON H. HARDING was born August 7, 1810, in the town of
Williamson, Ontario Co., N. Y., and was the second son of David Hard-
ing, who in 1820 emigrated from New York to Ripley Couhty, Ind.
Myron Holly Harding attended the pioneer schools of Ripley County,
and worked at chopping, piling brush and burning log and brush piles,
sometimes, on moonlight nights, working with his brothers in the clear-
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 175
ing until a late hour. When eighteen years of age he became a school
teacher and at the age of twenty entered upon the study of medicine
under the tuition of Dr. Cornett,- of Versailles. After studying one
year he successfully stood the examination before the Medical Society of
Dearborn County. He then practiced as a licentiate until the year 1837,
when he graduated at the Ohio Medical College. He subsequently
located at Lawrenceburgh, where he continued in the successful practice
of his profession until his last sickness. His practice was extensive,
and his skill and learning _in his profession were never questioned.
He was the author of some valuable articles in the medical journals.
He served as president of the Indiana State Medical Society and of the
Dearborn County Medical Society. He took a warm interest in the
progress of medical science and was a member of the American Medical
Association and an honorary member of the California State Medical
Society. Dr. Harding was a remarkable man. First he was a man of
one work, a faithful servant of the community in his profession. He
was a most devout man, and faithful husband and father. His wife and
children occupied the tenderest place in his affection, their adversity his
sorrow, their prosperity his delight. He was a true citizen and unhesi-
tatingly identified himself upon the side he thought best and right. A
defender of all moral principles, you knew just where you would find
him, because he was a man of clear convictions and had the courage of
them. In the midst of all the activities of a courageous manhood, on
the 5th of June, 1885, he was stricken with paralysis. He lingered on
through the passing months until September 18, 1885, when his
death occurred. His remains were interred in Greendale Cemetery at
Lawrenceburgh. Such are the mere outlines of the life of a self-made
and self-educated physician, whose indomitable will and unblemished
moral character deserved the high success which crowned the career of
Myron Holly Harding, M. D. In 1838 he was united in marriage to
Lucy S. Plummer, who died in 1864 In 1865 he was joined in mar-
riage to Mary A. Hill. To him, by his first marriage, were born six
children, three now living — Isadora H. , Laura F. and David Arthur.
176 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
CHAPTER XI.
JOURNALISM.
Dearborn Gazette— Indiana Oracle— Indiana Oracle and 'Dearborn
Gazette— Indiana Palladium— The Western Statesman— Politi-
cal Beacon— Remarks on Milton Gregg and David V. Culley—
Indiana Whig— Indiana Patriot— Dearborn County Register-
Indiana Whig— Indiana Register— Democratic Register— Inde-
pendent Press— Union Press— Lawrenceburgh Press— Remarks
on 0. B. ToRBETT— The Rising Sun— Rising Sun Times— Rising Sun
Times and Journal- Remarks on Isaac Stevens— Remarks on
Alex E Glenn— Rising Sun Journal— Indiana Patriot— Dear-
born County Register— Remarks on Elder William P. Stratton—
Indiana Blade— Remarks on the Co vingtons— Indiana Whig-
Remarks ON Robert T. Moore— Rising Sun Herald— Rising Sun
Mirror- Hoosier Patriot— Indiana Republican— Xeutral Pen-
ant— Weekly News— Indiana Weekly Visitor— The Hoosier
Paper— Observer and Recorder- Recorder— Ohio County Re-
corder—Rising SunRecorder— Saturday News— Rising Sun Local •
—General Remarks.
THE first newspaper published in Dearborn Connty was styled the
Dearborn Gazette,\>\ih\\shed at Lawrenceburgh in 1817, by B. Brown,
a Yankee; the office was in a little brick building owned by James
Hamilton, located on the rear end of the lot on which is now known as
the residence of Mr. John B. Vail. The motto of the paper was "Equal
and exact justice." The printer of the establishment is remembered to
have been Steele Sampson.
We have before us Vol. I, No. 5, of the Indiana Oracle, which bears
date of September 29, 1819, "printed and published every Wednesday
morning by Dunn & Russell." The Oracle was a four column folio and
in size about 18x10 inches. Just how long the Indiana Oracle vfas pub-
lished by Messrs. Dunn & Russell we cannot say, but it was under their
management at the close of the first volume, which was with the issue of
October 3, 1820, when there was no indication of their withdrawal. The
next record evidence we have is that No. 119, Vol. Ill of the Oracle appeai-s
under date of September 21, 1822, "printed and published weekly by
Dunn & M'Pike, which with issue of July 19, 1823, came out under the
title of the Indiana Oracle and Dearborn Gazette, so it is likely that the
Dearborn Gazette had been in existence during these years and at this
time was consolidated with the Oracle.
JOURNALISM. 177
The successor to the Oracle and Gazette was the Indiana Palladium,
the first number of which was issued Friday, January 7, 1825,
printed and published by M. Gregg and D. V. Culley, being of the same
size as all of its predecessors. The Palladium flew the motto "Equality
of rights is nature's plan — And following nature is the March of Man."
In the salutatory it was stated "We profess ourselves Republicans,
warmly attached to the best interests of our country; and pledge our-
selves to publish a paper founded upon purely Republican principles,
uncontrolled by faction, and unbiased by party spirit. Divesting ourselves
of everything like sectional partialities and local predjudices — our paper
shall be devoted exclusively to the benefit of ourselves and the public in
general. " * *
Of the Palladium and the men connected with it, C. F. Clarkson
wrote in 1883:
•* The first permanent newspaper, from which there has been contin-
uously a live paper issued, was started January 10, 1825, by Milton
Gregg and David V. Culley, called the Indiana Palladium. They were
both able writers and practical printers. The office was originally located
in the second story of what was called fifty-five years ago the ' bank
building,' being west of and adjoining the old residence of father Isaac
Dunn. In the summer of 1829, the proprietors built a one-story office
further east on the continuation of High Street, opposite the residence of
that sturdy old citizen William Tate. They continued to publish the
Palladium, making it a spirited and interesting paper, until September
12, 1829, when owing to some unfortunate difficulties Mr. Gregg sold
out to Mr. Culley, who continued to publish it until he was appointed to a
position in the land office at Indianapolis, by President Jackson. Mr.
Culley was a decided Democrat, while Milton Gregg was a National
Republican, which was pi-evious to the day when, at the suggestion of
James Watson Webb, the party took the name of W^hig.
" The writer went into the Palladium office, September 21. 1828, as an
apprentice, but retired from it with Mr. Gregg. So long as Gregg &
Culley published the Palladium, it was independent in politics, but when
Culley assumed entire control, it espoused the^cause of Jackson and De-
mocracy. Mr. Gregg at once commenced preparations to start a National
Republican paper, which he did in the second story over the old Ferris
drug store, corner of High and Short Streets, then occupied by Prichard
& Noble, for drugs. The paper was commenced March 10, 1830, and
was called The Western Statesman. Previous to this time, there had
been various vicissitudes with papers at Brookville, Ind., the last by Au-
gustus Jocelyn. Gregg purchased of Mr. Joeelyn the Brookville printing
materials. They were old and badly broken in sorts. Mr. Gregg sent a
178 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
wild Hoosier teamster for the printing establishmjent, who laid a quilt on
the floor and emptied all the cases on it — all sizes and varieties of types
in one inglorious 'pi.' John W. Holland, who lived and flourished at
Indianapolis long after, and if living yet, will vividly recollect aiding
the writer in distributing the 'pi.' It took three weeks. C. F. Clark-
son, who had commenced his apprenticeship with Gregg & Culley, finished
it in the office of the Statesman. That was a hard time for newspapers.
The people were poor, just opening their farms, and mail routes and post-
offices scarce. A part of our apprenticeship was to ride horseback Friday
and Saturday every week to distribute the papers to subscribers. The
route was down by Aurora, Rising Sun, then north to Watts' Mill, then
up by old Charles Dashiel's, around by Manchester, etc., home — leaving
packages of papers in twenty or thirty places. Mr. Gregg continued to
publish the Statesman but a few weeks by himself. He sold out a half
interest on the 28th of April, 1830, to Thomas Dowling, an able writer
and shrewd politican from Washington City, who had learned his trade
and politics in the old National Intelligencer office. Dowling i became a
prominent man in Indiana politics— standing high socially and finan-
cially. He died a few years ago at Terre Haute. He Tylerized in 1842,
and, as a consequence, got a fat Indian contract, which made him finan-
cially comfortable for life.
"Gregg & Dowling continued in partnership only till November 2,
1830, when the latter retired and bought the Greensburg paper. At that
time one A. F. Morrison was editor of the Democratic paper at Indian-
apolis. He was considered the strongest political writer in the State, and
the small fry of all parties, though not respecting, feared him. Dowling
fearlessly bearded him. It was one of the fiercest and probably the
ablest newspaper warfare ever waged in Indiana.
"Mr. Gregg continued to publish the Statesman until the spring of 1831.
John Spencer, who was then sheriff of Dearborn County, having been
appointed receiver of public moneys at the land office at Fort Wayne,
resigned the sheriff's office. At that time Noah Noble was governor of
Indiana, and he appointed Milton Gregg sheriff. At that day public
officers performed the duties of the office in person, instead of doing as
now, having deputies to transact the business, while they smoke cigars,
talk politics, and prepare for re-election, or to succeed to a better office.
" Mr. Gregg being engrossed with the sheriff's office, in which there
was more money than publishing a paper, abandoned the office entirely,
yet in his name. He gave the editorial and mechanical department over
to the writer hereof, then only twenty years of age. During the year I
purchased it of Mr. Gregg, with the understanding that possession was
to be given at the close of the newspaper year, which was March 8, 1832.
JOURNALISM. 179
I published the paper by myself until March 8, 1833, when I sold one-
half to D. S. Major. In July, of the same year, the other half was sold
to J. R. Smith, who was a worthless vagabond, and soon left for parts
unknown. The paper then had a precarious existence for some time
under Major's administration, who, as a lawyer, had enough to do without
a newspaper."
No. 1, Vol. II, of the Statesman was a five column folio and flew
this motto, "The Constitution, Wisdom, Justice, Moderation," and was
issued March 18, 1831, by Milton Gregg.
Mr. Clax'kson, on assuming the management of the paper, in the pros ■
pectus said: "The great principles which this press shall maintain will
be those of the Union, of the American system, and of internal improve-
ments. * * * * It will support for the next Presi-
dency, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and for Vice-President John Sergeant,
of Pennsylvania.'' For a time, in 1832, while Mr. Gregg was serving as
sheriff, Judge Test edited the Statesman, and in an editorial said: "I
have ever been, and always expect to be, the devoted (perhaps some will
say the enthusiastic) advocate of those great national principles, sound
principles of Union, of the American system, and of internal improve-
ments, until maintained." Under date of March 15, 1833, Mr. Major
set forth that he was opposed to the rights of secession. "That a State
has a right to withdraw from the Union whenever she becomes dissatis-
fied with any of the measures of the general Government, I cannot ad-
mit. * * * J 1jq1(J that there is no such thing as State sov-
ereignty, nor a sovereignty in the general Government. * * *
For let the doctrine of nullification and secession once prevail, and all
the wisdom, talent, zeal and patriotism in our government cannot save
the Union. Like the pestilential blast, it will sweep over our land, and
leave the dilapidated walls of the once-fair fabric of our Republican
Government the blasted monumeirt of our folly." * * *
With the issue of October 9, 1833, Mr. Major withdrew from the
Statesman, leaving Mr. Smith the sole publisher until the following
spring.
After the expiration of Mr. Gregg's term of oflfice as sherifi", he en-
gaged for a time in flat-boating and trading on the river, but again re-
turned to his profession, and, it is said, in 1837 began the publication
in Lawrenceburgh of a paper entitled the Political Beacon. No. 1, of
Volume III, bears the date of October 26, 1839. This paper he published
until 1844, when he sold to Messrs. Dunn & Watts. On the 25th of
January, 1840, said the editor of the Beacon: "Our banner is thrown
to the breeze, on whose broad folds are inscribed the names of Harrison
and Tyler, and in their cause, and for the interest of our common country,
180 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
we shall expect to do battle in such a manaer as to prove to the
world that we are no lukewarm politiciansi" Still later, in the cam-
paign of 1840, appeared the following extract: "That we are zealous
in politics, and ardently devoted to the success of Whig principles, we
admit; but that we would attempt to carry our point by misi'epresenting
facts to the prejudice of our political opponents, is a charge which we
desire, at all times, indignantly to repel! — and no man shall lay it at
our door with impunity. Our cause is founded upon the immutable
principles of justice and truth; and upon this broad basis, and this alone,
we desire to see it stand or fall, 'Truth is mighty and will prevail.' "
From Lawrenceburgh Mr. G-regg went to Madison, and finally to New
Albany, Ind., where he died some twelve or fifteen years ago. "He mar-
ried, December 25, 1828, Miss Lucy B. Dennis, then one of the prettiest
women I ever saw. They raised a model family of children, but parents
and children are all dead, except the youngest daughter, who now lives
in Des Moines, Iowa."
David V. Culley died in Indianapolis in 1869; was born in Pennsyl-
vania in 1804, receiving the greatest part of his schooling at or in the
vicinity of Franklinton, where he also acquired the rudiments of his
trade — printing. About 1821, he removed to Elizabethtown, Ky., where
his father was residing, and where he finished his trade. Subsequently
he was at Corydon and at Brookville, and in 1824 removed to Lawrence-
burgh. Here he was married to a Miss Brown, and in 1825, in connec-
tion with Milton Gregg, established the Indiana Palladium, but in time
political differences separated them. Mr. Culley served in both branches
of the General Assembly from Dearborn County, and in 1836 was made
register of the land ofi&ce by Van Buren, removed to Indianapolis, and
in 1851 served as president of the gas company.
A paper styled the Indiana Whig was started in Lawrenceburgh in
1834. No. 6 of Vol. I appeared under date of May 24, edited by John
McPike. Nothing further that is definite of this paper have we been
able to learn.
John B. Hall, in September, 1839, succeeded Elder W. P. Stratton
in the publication of the Rising Sun Journal, which paper, under date
of October 10, 1840, appeared as the Indiana Patriot, in which Mr.
Hall stated that he had sold the office to Mr. G. M. Childs, and discon-
tinued the publication of the Journal. The Patriot was to be Whig in
politics. December 5, 1840, Mr. Childs withdrew from the publication
of the Patriot, and was succeeded by J. B. Kent. This office was
removed to W^ilmington, and under date of March 27, 1841, appeared at
Wilmington, Vol. I, No. 1, of the Dearborn County Register, neutral in
politics, published by J. B. Kent. It has been stated in print that the
JUURNALISM. 181
Dearborn County Register was suspended at the end of the first year,
and the office and fixtures sold to B. B. Root, who continued the publi-
cation at Wilmington, of a paper styled the Indiana Whig, until 1844,
when the office was removed to Lawrencebui'gh, where it was continued
by B. B. Root and James S. Jelley until the close of that year, when it was
suspended, and^the office and fixtures bought by John B. Hall, who, for
the second time, began the publication of the Register. Again it has
been stated that, in the fall of 1844, Mr. Root sold the Whig to Mr.
John B. Hall. who changed the name to the Indiana Register, and in the
following year moved the paper to Lawrenceburgh, and, purchasing the
Political Beacon, consolidated the papers under the name of the Demo-
cratic Register. In 1850 Mr. Hall sold the Register to George W. Lane,
who, in 1851, sold it to Messrs. Oliver B. Tarbett and Charles C. Scott.
These gentlemen continued to publish it two years, and, in 1853, sold it
to Addison Bookwalter, who published it until in 1871 — his valedictory
appearing in issue of January 6. Mr. Bookwalter's successor was
Edward F. Sibley, who continued its publication until in 1877 — his val-
edictory appearing under date of Max'ch 8. In the same issue ap-
peared the salutatory of the Democratic Register Printing Company.
On the 29th of March, of the same year, appeared the valedictory of
J. H. Burkam and the salutatory of W. D. H. Hunter and W. H.
O'Brien, who have since conducted the paper. From the foregoing it is
seen that the Democratic Register is the lineal successor of the Dear-
born County Register, established at Wilmington in 1841. Mr. Ben-
jamin V. Gould, now foreman in the printing department of the Register
office, seems almost a part of the establishment, in as much as he entered
the office as an apprentice in 1856, and with the exception of a short
period, has been identified with the printing of the Register as foreman
through that long period of years.
October 18, 1850, was issued the first number of a newspaper in Law-
renceburgh, styled the Independent Press, published by H. L. Brown
and James E, Goble, and edited by O. B. Torbett. The Press was a
seven column folio. August 22, 1851, the Press was sold to Rev. W. W.
Hibben, who, on the 9th of |June, 1852, associated with him J. P.
Chew, a pi-actical printer and foreman of the office, as assistant editor.
On the 20th of October following, Mr. Chew became the proprietor and
editor of the paper, and conducted t until April 12, 1856, when he sold
to E. F. Sibley, then publishing the Aurora Standard, who combined
the two papers, which were suspended in 1857.
For several years following 1857, with, perhaps, a short interim, a
Republican paper continued to be issued at Lawrenceburgh, with differ-
ent persons at its head, among whom were R. D. Brown, and Thompson
182 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Brothers. Within a period of five years subsequent to 1856, the paper
had five different publishers, and was suspended as many times. June
8, 1864, appeared the first issue of the Union Press, a six-column folio,
published by Lyman Knapp. The Press firmly adhered to the cause of
the North and supported the Union, urging a vigorous prosecution of the
war and the abolition of slavery. July 4, 1867, the name of the paper
was changed to the Lawrenceburgh Press. Mr. Knapp in a short time
was succeeded by J. P. Chew, in the publication of the Press, who had
been, with the exception of about five years, identified with the Repub-
lican organ of the county as publisher and editor, since 1852. Mr. Chew
continued to conduct the Press until June 27, 1878, when he sold the
paper to James E. Larimer, who has since published and edited the
same. Mr. Samuel Chapman, now a job printer of the city, was, for
some eighteen years prior to Mi*. Chew's withdrawal from the Press, asso-
ciated with the printing department of the office in the relation of fore-
man and manager. The Press is the Republican organ of the county,
and, as will be seen from what has been said above, is the direct succes-
sor of the Independent Press established in 1850. Mr. Torbett, whose
name is connected with the history of the Press, died in Indianapolis in
1864. He commenced the practice of the law in Lawrenceburgh about
1848; was for a time connected with the Press, and subsequently with
the Register. Iq 1849-50, he served from this county in the State Leg-
islature, and was speaker of the House; was a talented man, the young-
est in that body.
The first newspaper published in Aurora was the Indiana Signal,
the first number of which made its appearance in August, 1836, edited
by L. C. Hastings. In politics the Signal was Democratic, and was dis-
continued after the presidential campaign of that year.
In 1839 a paper was established at Aurora entitled the Dearborn
Democrat, by the Aurora Printing Company, edited by Alexander E.
Glenn, which was continued during the exciting canvass of 1840, then
removed to Lawrenceburgh and published by C. W. Hutchins. For sev-
eral years following the removal of the Democrat, Aurora was without a
paper.
The Western Republican was started at Lawrenceburgh by Nimrod
Lancaster in 1846, and in the fall of 1847 it was removed to Aurora. It
was started as an independent paper, Vol. II, No. 32, appeared under date
of November 22, 1847, published at Aurora by John B. Hall and Nimrod
Lancaster, supporting Taylor. In 1848, the Republican became the
property of Folbre & Co. The Wester7i Commercial was started in Aurora
in 1848, by N. W. Folbre and W. H. Murphy, Vol. I, No. 11, bearing date
of February 10, 1849. The Commercial was neutral in politics and
JOURNALISM. 183
religion, and continued to be published and edited by Mr. Folbre until
on the 22d of May, 1851, when he retired and was succeeded by Messrs.
Root & Bowers. That year (1851) these gentlemen established the Aurora
Standard, a Whig paper. These gentlemen continued the publication
six months, and for six months longer the Standard was published by
Mr. Bowers alone, when, in 1852, E. F. Sibley, then foreman in the
office, purchased an interest in the paper, and continued in its publica-
tion until the paper was suspended in 1857.
The Independent Banner was started at Aurora, in 1852, by N. D.
Folbre, the first issue appearing August 12. Mr. Folbre remained the
editor and publisher of the Banner until his death, which occurred
March 3, 1854. The publication ceased with the paper of March 8,
1854. Mr. Folbre was born in Ohio in 1824, and, with his parents,
located in Aui'ora in 1826. In 1836 he entered the Signal office in Aurora
to learn his trade. From 1838 until 1845 he was employed in the office
of the Political Beacon at Lawrenceburgh, where he remained until
1845, when the press changed hands, and our subject controlled the
printing department. Later he was in the office of the Western Repub-
lican, printed at Lawrenceburgh by Mr. Lancaster, and when the office
was moved to Aurora in 1847, Mr. F. returned with it.
In 1859 W. H. Nelson established a paper at Aurora called the Aurora
Commercial, which continued to be published by him until some time in
the early part of 1861, when it was suspended. That fall the paper was
revived by E. F. Sibley, and successfully conducted by him until 1868,
when the establishment was sold to John Cobb.
September 13, 1868, appeared the first number of a paper styled the
Peoples' Advocate, published at Aurora by E. F. Sibley, which was con-
tinued by that gentleman until 1871.
July, 1868, there was established at Aurora by a joint stock company
of twenty-four members, who had pui'chased the press and printing
material of the Auroi-a Commercial, a paper called the Dearborn Inde-
pendent, an independent Republican newspaper. Up to February, 1869,
this paper was edited and published by J. W. McDonald & T. J. Cobb.
At this time Mr.'McDonald retired and left the management and editing of
the paper to Mr. Cobb, who, in April, 1873, sold the Independent to L.
W. Cobb, who has since conducted the paper as proprietor and editor.
Under the present management the paper has been conducted as independ-
ent in politics.
The Aurora Spectator, a neat and newsy weekly newspaper, was
started some years since by James Everett, a native of Illinois, but for
ten years past a resident of Aurora. In 1882 he accepted, as a partner,
Frank Gregory, a native 'of Rising Sun. Messrs. Everett & Gregory
184 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
have both been connected with the printing business from boyhood, and
are achieving an encouraging success with their enterprise in Aurora.
Two and fifty years ago occurred the birth of the first newspaper
published in Rising Sun, then a village of Dearborn County. The
paper was styled the Rising Surij the first issue of which appeared under
date of November 16, 1833, printed and published by Isaac Stevens &
Co., the Company being Eldridge G. Brown, a steamboat captain. In
size, the Rising Sun was 18x11^ inches, a five column folio. It was not
designed as a political paper, "reserving to our individual self the right
to speak and think, we shall ever in our editorial capacity avoid all
partyism and political controversies, while at the same time, in regard
to the general movements of the Government we shall endeavor to give
a plain and unvarnished tale, and leave our readers upon this subject to
ponder and determine for themselves.'' With the issue of May 17,
1834, the name of the paper was changed to the Rising Swn Times,
published by Stevens & Glenn. The Times was neutral in politics and
continued to be published by Stevens & Glenn until November 8, 1834,
when Mr. Stevens sold to Mr. Glenn who continued its publication until
1837 or 1838; the last number we were able to find appeared under date
of September 16, 1837. On the 18th of February, 1837 or some time
prior thereto, the name of the paper was changed to the Rising Sun
Times and Farmers* Journal, and with that issue began the paper, a
political one, pledging itself to support the administration of Martin
Van Buren.
Isaac Stevens was born in the city of New York, in 1811, and in
1815 with his parents removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where, at the age
of fifteen, he was apprenticed to the printing business, serving six years,
thence coming from the ofiice of the Cincinnati Gazette in 1833, to
Rising Sun. In the fall of 1836 he removed to Vevay, and there com-
menced the publication of a weekly newspaper, which business he
continued in with the intermission of about two years, until 1857, tnen
engaged in different branches of mercantile business until his death,
which occurred in 1877.
Alexander E. Glenn was a man of considerable ability, and after
leaving Rising Sun went to Aurora, where he was connected with the
publication of a paper. In 1836 he represented Dearborn County in the
Legislature, and in 1841 he returned to the city of Columbus, Ohio,
taking the foremanship of the State Journal office. In 1853 he com-
menced the publication of the Ark, an Odd Fellows' Journal, which he
edited for fifteen years. His death occurred at Columbus, Ohio, in
1872.
Vol. I, No. 1, of the Rising Sun Journal, a five column folio sheet,
JOURNALISM. 185
neutral in politics, was issued September 12, 1838, edited and published
by William P. Stratton, who retired from the paper September 7, 1839,
and was succeeded by John B. Hall, whose name appeared in connection
with the paper September 21st of that year. The paper appeared under
date of October 10, 1840, as the Indiana Patriot, being a six column
folio, stamped as Vol I, No. 1, in which issue Mr. Hall stated that he
had sold his printing office to G. M. Child, and discontinued the publi-
cation of the Rising Sun Journal. The Patriot was to be Whig in poli-
tics. With the issue of December 5, 1840, Mr. Childs withdrew and J.
B. Kent became the proprietor. The last issue of this paper at our
command appeared October 9, 1841. The office was removed to Wil-
mington, and under date of March 27, 1841, appeared at Wilmington,
Vol. I, No. 1, of the Dearborn County Register, neutral in politics,
published by J. B. Kent. At the end of two years Mr. Hall again
bought the office and published the first Cass paper in Indiana. After
the division of Dearborn County and the removal of the county seat to
Lawrenceburgh, Mr. Hall removed the office to that place, carrying it on
until he sold out to George W. Lane in 1852, after which Mr. Hall
went to Evansville, where he published for several years the Evansville
Enquirer. In 1876 he was still connected with the press of that city.
Elder William P. Stratton, whose name is mentioned above in con-
nection with the press of the county, was, while publishing the paper,
pastor of the Christian Churches at Rising Sun, Ind., Petersburgh and
Burlington, Ky. He was a practical printer, and though for forty years
a preacher, had by secular pursuits supported himself and family. His
death occurred in Cincinnati, in 1883, aged seventy-five years. In that
city he held many positions of honor and trust. He baptized over 1,000
persons, officiated at over 2,000 funerals and married over 2.000 couples.
March 25, 1843, S. F. Covington issued the first number of a paper,
styled the Indiana Blade, which was established for the purpose of se-
curing the division of Dearborn County, and the location of a county
seat at Rising Sun. An effort of this kind had been made at regular in-
tervals for a number of years, but had always proven unsuccessful. On
this occasion, however, the friends of the measure succeeded in electing
George P. Buell to the Senate, and Col. Pinkney James, David Macy and
Richard Spicknell to the House, who procured the passage of a law di-
viding Dearboru County, and creating the new county of Ohio. Febru-
ary 22, 1845, Mr. Covington associated with him his brother, John B. ,
and August 23 of that year, S. F. Covington transferred the paper to
hisjbrother, John B. Covington, and took charge of the Madison Courier.
In 1846 he returned and united with his bi'other in the publication, and
continued until January, 1848. when he purchased the Madison Courier
186 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
and again took charge of that paper. John B. Covington continued in
charge at Rising Sun. March 11, 1848, John B. Covington sold the
Blade to Amor & Jennison, and joined his brother at Madison in the
Courier. In July, 1849, they sold the Courier to M. C. Garber.
S. F. Covington went into the insurance business, and for many years
was connected with the Indianapolis and Rising Sun Insurance Companies,
having charge of the office of the Indianapolis company in that city. After-
ward he went to Cincinnati and became secretary of the Globe Insurance
Company, and is now its president. He has served as president of the Cin-
cinnati Chamber of Commerce, and is one of the best posted and most
reliable and trustworthy commercial men in that city. John B. Coving-
ton became secretary of the Rising Sun Insurance Company, and acted
in that capacity for several years; was engaged also in trading in produce,
and has now retired to a rural home half a mile below Rising Sun.
With the issue of June 3, 1848, George Amor was succeeded in the
publication of the Blade by R. P. Moore, the paper to be conducted in
the future under the title of the Indiana Whig, by Messrs Moore & Jen-
nison; Vol. I, No. 1, of which appeared June 17, 1848. In the salu-
tatory it was stated that the Wliig would support Taylor and Filmore.
" Fully persuaded of the importance of the approaching campaign, the
interest already manifested by the Whigs of this representative district,
and the importance of a Whig paper at this point, has alone induced the
proprietors to embark in this new enterprise. With no encouragement
but the efficacy of our principles, and the ultimate good which must nec-
essarily flow from a proper promulgation of those principles, has in-
duced us to launch our frail bark on the broad and boundless ocean of
political warfare, and meet the enemy 'face to face' in open combat.
" The Democratic nominations are already made; the party drill of
the 'opposition' has commenced; the tocsin has been sounded, and they
are daily girding on their armor preparing for the conflict. It behooves
us, then, as W^higs, to meet them. Therefore it is necessary we should
have some medium through which to defend ourselves. We intend the
Whig to be that medium; and in order to more fully disseminate the
Republican principles of the great Whig party, we ask the Whigs of the
district to aid us, and we will spare no pains to render the Whig worthy
of their support. In fact, we intend making the Whig a political paper,
giving 'measures, not men,' our preference.
" We are now on the eve of an important political campaign, one,
too, fraught with more interest and magnitude than any preceding one.
The trying issue has come. One more universal rally is necessary. With
the spirit of 1840 breathing in every patriotic Whig breast, and the inter-
ests of our common country at stake, we can, by a strong pull, and a long
JOURNALISM. 187
pull, and a pull altogether, redeem the Whig party^from the thraldom in
which it was so unexpectedly thrown in 1844. " * * * *
Mr Jennison was associated with the publication of the Whig but a
short time, when the paper was conducted by Mr. Moore (Robert T.)
alone. The latter was a sharp writer, a little rough and decidedly pur-
sonal, and had several street difficulties. In point of ability the Whig
ranked among the first papers of the State. Its editor defended and sup-
ported with noted talent the cause he espoused, doing himself credit and
exercising no little influence by the bold and independent course he pur-
sued. Under Taylor Mr. Moore became postmaster of Rising Sun; sub-
sequently read law and was admitted to the bar; served as prosecuting
attorney over this judicial district; removed to Cincinnati, where he died
September 13, 1854, at the early age of twenty-eight years.
The office of the Whig was sold to W. T. Pepper, who issued under
date of August 24, 1850, No. 1, Vol. I, of a paper styled the Rising Sun
Herald, to be neutral in politics.
Vol. I, No. 1, of the Rising Sun Mirror was issued November 24,
1849, by John H Scott, which March 13, 1851, was consolidated with the
Herald, to be neutral in politics, as each of those papers had been; the new
paper to be edited by Mr. Pepper and published by Charles Scott. This pa-
per was shortlived, we judge, for in September, 1852, Mr. Pepper issued No.
1, Vol. I, of a paper under the title of the Hoosier Patriot, Democratic
in politics. The Patriot was published but a short time.
Vol. I, No. 1 of the Indiana Repahlican appeared in Risino- Sun
August 30, 1851, under the proprietorship of Hayden & Gregory. It
claimed to be Republican in politics, of the same school of Adams, Clay
and Webster, and supported Fillmore for the presidency. September 20,
1851, Mr. Hayden withdrew from the paper and was succeeded by Will-
iam French, who in connection with Mr. Gregory published the paper
until December 11, 1852, when Mr. French became sole pi'oprietor. Jan-
uary 1, 1853, H. C. Craft became associated with Mr. French in the
publication of ih.Q Republican, the last number of which was issued April
22, 1854, and the paper was then removed to Jeflfersonville, Ind.
The Neutral Penant made its appearance in Rising Sun, October 13,
1853, published by H. C. Craft; and the Weekly News, Vol. I, No. 2, ap-
peai'ed under date of March 3, 1854, by Charles Scott. The latter not
long after this removed his office to Vevay.
May 6, 1854, was issued No. 1, Vol. I, of the Indiana Weekly Visi-
tor, published by William H. Gregory, in the publication of which he
continued until in 1859. Under date of November 7, 1857, under the
head " Last of Republicanism," the editor observed:
" The career of Republicanism has been run — the yearling is dead.
188 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
The coup de grace has been administered in the State of Ohio— its only
western stronghold — and it now lives only on its death bed in New York
and New England. During its life it was, without intending it, a great
ally to "the Democracy," for it elected Buchanan, when Fillmore alone
could have defeated him; and a Congress, elected two years ago "Ameri-
can," it converted afterward into " Republican," to be succeeded, as it
was certain to be, under such a wrongful conversion, by a Congress
Democratic.
"We were accustomed a year since to speak of the Freemont movement
as a passion, an excitement and a fever, which was as certain to die out
in a twelvemonth, as night and day were certain to succeed each other.
We were very much abused then for the prediction, but time has proved
it true." * * * How soon the resurrection, and what a
grand life!
Under the head "Obituary" appeared the following notice of this paper
in the Hoosier Paper oi. March 5, 1864: "Died on Saturday morning, Feb-
ruary 20, 1864, after an illness of several months, the Aurora Rising Sun
Visitor, in the ninth year of its age. Requiescat in pace.
"Little did we imagine, when we came to Rising Sun to publish the
Hoosier Paper, that we would so soon be called upon to record the
detnise of this time-honored and valuable institution, which, with an
intermission of a few months, continued to exist for nearly nine years.
The publication of the Visitor was commenced by the late William H.
Gregory, in the year 1855, if we recollect aright, and continued by him
several years. During his administration, the Visitor was looked upon
as one of the ablest papers in the State; but, after continuing the publi-
cation of the paper for about four years, he was compelled, on account
of bad health, to retire from business. Mr. Gregory disposed of the
office to Judge J. J. Hayden, then residing in this city, who published
the paper about twelve months and then sold out to Mr. D. G. Rabb,
and Mr. John W. Rabb took hold of the paper and published it through
the presidential campaign ]of 1860, and^ up to the breaking out of the
Rebellion. In April, 1861, Mr. Rabb recruited a company of troops
under the call of the President for 75,000 men for three months' service,
and went with the Seventh Indiana Regiment, leaving the Visitor in
charge of a publisher. When the call was made for three years' troops,
the said publisher left it in the hands of another 'publisher,' who 'run'
it about one month, and then let it fizzle. After a lapse of several
months, the concern was revived by Messrs. Frank Gregory & Co. (Mr.
Ed F. Sibley), of the Aurora Commercial. For about a year the paper
was published regularly 'every Saturday morning,' the first and fourth
pages being printed at Aurora. Finally, Messrs. F. G. & Co. sold the
JOURNALISM. 189
material, with which the second and third pages had been printed, to a
firm in Ripley County, and thereafter the arduous task of printing the
Visitor was performed at the Commercial office in Aurora, the work being
expedited by transferring matter from the columns of the Commercial
to those of the Visitor, and filling the fourth page, and a large portion
of the other three pages with Aurora advertisements. From the time of
the transfer of the concern from Rising Sun to Aurora, the people lost
interest in it, and the aforesaid valuable(?) institution continued to
grow gradually weaker and to struggle hard for existence; but finally,
without a cry or a groan— it being so weak it couldn't groan — it suc-
cumbed and went 'the way of all flesh.' Such is the short but brilliant
history of the Aurora Rising Sun Visitor. Again we exclaim, 'Peace to
its ashes.'"
The Hoosier Paper was started in Rising Sun February 20, 1864, by
John P. Lemon and D. B. Hall (the latter is now the publisher of the
Rising Sun Local), which gentlemen continued its publication until in
the following August, when Mr. Hall went into the United States serv-
ice, and Mr. Lemon continued the publication of the Hoosier until the
February following, when he sold to Mr. J. E. D. Ward. The follow-
ing is extracted from the salutatory of the Hoosier: "Politically, our
paper will support the present administration in all its acts in the con-
duct of the war. * * * "VVe know no difference between a traitor in
arms and a traitor at heart, and think they should be served the same
way — hanged as high as Haman. While our brave soldiers are fighting
the enemy, we deem it our duty to fight them at home and we shall do
so to the last extremity. We do not want to see this war end unless it
be with honor to the North. Just so soon as Jeff Davis & Co. come to
see 'the error of their ways,' and come back under the shadow of the
old stars and stripes, in obedience to the Constitution and laws of the
country, or the whole race of rebels is exterminated and our armies and
navies have encompassed their territory, then we are for peace — not be-
fore."
On the 11th of March, 1865, Mr. J. Edwin Donelson Ward issued
No. 1, Vol. I,' of the Observer and Recorder, whose political complexion
was purely loyal, conforming to the views and doctrines of the Repub-
lican or Union party, "to support the Government in all of its measures
to put down the Rebellion." Mr. Ward continued to publish the paper
until in 1866, retiring July 14, and on the 21st of that month and
year Messrs. Frank Gregory and Charles Beat}'^ took possession and
issued the Recorder, which gentlemen set forth in their salutatory that it
was their intention to publish an independent newspaper, devoted to
the interests of Ohio County and Rising Sun. On the 12th of January,
1 1
190 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
1867, the name of the paper was changed to the Ohio Comity Recorder.
With the issue of the paper bearing date of September 26, 1868. Mr,
Beaty retires and the Recorder is published by Mr. Gregory until June
2, 1873, when the paper was sold to the present proprietor, Frederick J.
Waldo, who June 7, 1873, seat the paper out a quarto, six columns,
independent in politics but not neutral. The paper is now published
under the name of the Rising Sun Recorder, and is Republican in
politics.
October 17, 1874, D. W. Calvert commenced the publication of a
paper in Rising Sun styled the Saturday News, independent in politics.
The News was continued in Rising Sun under the same proprietorship
uutil in the spring of 1878, when the office was removed to Aurora and
the paper there published under the same management, though changed
in politics to a Democratic paper until the spring of 1881, when its pub-
lication was discontinued.
Vol. I, No. 1, of a weekly paper styled the Rising Sun Local, a six
column folio independent in politics, published by Banner Hall, made
its appearance in Rising Sun July 26, 1879, with Murray T. Williams
as local editor. The Local has continued under the same name and
proprietorship, though several times enlarged and otherwise improved
from the beginning. It is now Republican in politics, and Mr. Hall,
the editor, is still assisted by Mr. Williams. The LocaZ, since November
13, 1880 an eight column folio, is a live and interesting sheet.
The Rising Sun Herald is the name oE a weekly penny paper estab-
lished in the city in 1884, by Master Frank Downey, who is both editor
and publisher. The Herald is printed on a sheet about 7x10 inches, and
is a spicy little paper devoted to the best interests of the general public.
Vol. I, No. 46, of the Herald bears date of February 20, 1885. Giving
our prediction for what it is worth, founded on our observations of the
conduct of the " Liliputian," we judge our young friend (if he contin-
ues to see in person to the prompt delivery of the Herald of a February
morning, with the mercury ranging from 15° to 20° below zero, the Ohio
River almost frozen over, with the city itself frozen up, before one has a
fire or his breakfast, as the writer experienced last winter), will rise to the
foremost rank of his profession.
The printing offices of to-day throughout Dearborn and Ohio Counties
are well equipped with presses of modern make and with improved facil-
ities for the dispatch of all kinds of job work, and the men engaged in
the conduct of the several newspapers are men of ability and well quali-
fied for the profession, and are endeavoring to advocate such measures
as are in the line of progress and advancement ennobling to man, and
are for the best interests of the public generally. The men conducting
OHIO RIVER FLOODS. 191
party papers are, generally, of strong political convictions, and are not
silent on political questions, but are ever on the alert in the furtherance
of the principles of the party to which they are attached. Biographies
of the members of the press will be found in the biographical depart-
ment of this work.
CHAPTER XII.
OHIO RIVEK FLOODS.
Climate of the Ohio Valley— Conditions Favorable to a Great
Flood— The Flood of 1788-89— 1832— 184?— 1882— 1883— 1884— Disas-
trous Effects at Lawrenceburgh— Relief for Sufferers-
Table of High-water Marks at Cincinnatl
AN account of the most disastrous floods of the Ohio River will be
given in this chapter in the order of their occurrence.
The Ohio Valley is subject to greater vicissitudes of climate, perhaps,
than any other part of the world of like proportions. A change within
forty days has been experienced from a temperature 20° below zero to
65° above— the cold of Canada and the warmth of the Gulf in the same
winter. The conditions favorable for a destructive flood in the Ohio are
a frozen ground throughout the immense region drained by the river, a
thick covering of snow spread over fields and forests and accumulated in
immense snow-banks in the mountains, lastly warm winds from the Gulf
and the Southwest superabundantly laden with rain, and day after day
pouring out many inches of water. The ground being frozen is
impervious to the water from the rain and melted snow, and the torrents
from four States are poured into the mighty river.
The agency of the removal of forests and the cultivation of the soil
in increasing the number and destructiveness of floods had been much
discussed. Forests with their roots, fallen leaves and branches, act as
sponges, and to some extent hold back the water. The clearing and cul-
tivation of the land and the increase of tile and ditch-drains, facilitate
the discharge of the rain-fall into the streams; but it would seem that
the effects of these changes from a state of nature in causing floods have
been exaggerated. Certainly the destruction of forests cannot be the
cause of floods, for there were disastrous high waters at the very earliest
settlements. Dr. George Sutton, of Aurora, has vigorously attacked the
theory that the removal of forests produces our great floods. He says:
"The advocates of this theory seem to have forgotten that there have
192 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
been fluctuations not only in temperature but in the amount of rain-fall
over different parts of the globe in all ages, and that the vast amount of
moisture accompanying our continental storms is brought from the ocean
by great atmospheric currents, and that this moisture is deposited over
the country and along the valleys of our rivers independent of local
influences.
"A combination of circumstances may produce a flood similar to what
we had in 1884, forests or no forests. It is known that the fall of one
inch of rain is equivalent to 2,000,000 of cubic feet of water to the
square mile. If five inches of rain fall suddenly upon a deep snow lying
upon frozen ground in the valley of the Ohio Biver, the forests would
certainly have but little influence in preventing a disastrous flood.
From alluvial deposits we have conclusive evidence that great floods have
occurred in the Ohio River long before the country was settled by the
white man."
1788-89. — There was a great flood in the latter part of the winter in
which the Miami country was first settled. The troops arriving at the
mouth of the Great Miami were prevented by the high water from occu-
pying Fort Finney. The new settlement at Columbia in January was
under water; "but one house escaped the deluge." The soldiers were
driven from the ground floor of the block-house into the loft and from
the loft into the solitary boat which the ice had spared them. John
Cleves Symmes in a letter to Col. Dayton, dated North Bend, May, 1789,
says that the whole country thereabout had been inundated, and that "the
season was remarkable for the amazing height of the water in the Ohio,
beino" many feet higher than had been known since the white people had
come into Kentucky."
A memorandum by Judge Goforth reads thus: "September 25, 1789,
Maj. Stites, old Mr. Bealer and myself took the depth of the Ohio River,
and found there was fifty-seven feet of water in the channel, and that
the water was fifty-five feet lower at that time than it was at that
uncommonly high freshet last winter. The water at the high flood was
112 feet." '
It is evident that there is an error in these figures. If they were cor-
rect no house in Columbia would have escaped the deluge. It is prob-
able that these early observers made a mistake in measuring the height
of the marks of the flood or that they struck a hole in the river.
1832. — Passing over the high waters of more than forty years we
come to the first great flood of which a correct record exists, that of Feb-
ruary, 1832. On the 1st of February, the ground was covered with snow,
but the weather was warm and pleasant. The snow melted rapidly until
the 6th, when the rain set in. On the 8th and 9th it rained continuously;
OHIO RIVER FLOODS. 193
on the 10th the rising of the waters in the Ohio began to attract attention
at Cincinnati and Lawrenceburgh; on the 14th many merchants at Cin-
cinnati were compelled to remove their goods to the second story of their
houses; the river continued to rise rapidly until Saturday morning,
February 18, when it came to a stand.
The flood was of a most distressing character; the Ohio did more
damage by overflowing its banks than had ever before been done since the
first settlement of the country. Nearly all the towns on the Ohio were
inundated in whole or in part. Fences and movable property were
swept from all the farms on the river bottom from Pittsburgh to Louis-
ville. Houses, barns, grain and haystacks were seen floating down the
river in great numbers. Hundreds of families were turned houseless
upon the community. At^Cincinnati the water covered between thirty
and forty squares of the city which was then nearly all crowded into the
bottoms.
The flood reached its highest point on the 18th; two days later it
had declined two feet four inches; on the 24th the river was within its
banks. The bottoms^^about Cincinnati and Lawrenceburgh may be said
to have been inundated for about twelve days — six days while the flood
was advancing and six days after the decline began. The Lawrence-
burgh Palladium, published by David V. Culley, in its issue of March
3, 1832, said of this flood:
"The late great flood in the Ohio and its disastrous effects being sub-
jects of painful interest to all, we have collected in our paper to-day
statements from the different towns on the river. From Pittsburgh and
as far down as we have been able to learn; the destruction of property
has been great beyond a parallel in the West. The height of the water
in this place, over the great flood of 1815, was five feet nine inches,
and over that of 1825 about eight feet. High Street, the most elevated
part of the town, was covered with from four to six feet of water its
whole extent. On some of the cross streets the water was still higher,
and the inhabitants were compelled to seek refuge in the buildings
along High and Walnut Streets. All the two story buildings on these
streets were filled to overflowing — some having three, four and five
families in them."
Although Lawrenceburgh suffered much from this flood, some of the
statements concerning the condition of the town at the time of high
waters were gross exaggerations. A Cincinnati newspaper stated that
"the town of Lawrenceburgh is wholly inundated, so that there is
scarcely a house to be seen but the spire of the church." To this the
Statesmen replied: "Now the truth of the matter is, the flood was
perhaps about six or seven feet higher than it has ever been known;
194 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
two small frame or log dwellings on the low ground were floated away,
and some light, empty frames removed from their foundations, but no
lives were lost and no very serious injury sustained, indeed not nearly
so much as was expected while the flood was up and before it subsided.
The whole of the old part of the town was inundated, but the principal
part of the new town was not touched with the flood. * * *
* * * * No white man can recollect when the water has
been of sufficient height to overflow the principal street in our village,
and except the small cupola on the court house there is not a spire, dome
or sky-light on a church or any other building in the town."
1847. — The flood of this year is the only destructive one in the Ohio
of which we have any record, occurring in the month of December. The
rise was from streams on both sides of the Ohio emptying'their waters into
the Ohio above Lawrenceburgh. The Ohio began to swell December
10, 1847. December 15, there was a heavy fall of snow. On the
17th the waters reached their highest point, when there were sixty-three
feet and seven inches of water at Cincinnati.
1882. — The flood of February, 1882, although the waters were not so
high as in 1832 and 1847, was disastrous and appalling at Lawrence-
burgh. We copy from the newspapers of that city:
"For several weeks the Ohio River, at this city, had been rising grad-
ually, until Monday evening, February 20, it had reached a point at the
junction of the till in the fair grounds and the "Big Four" Railroad,
when it became necessary, on account of the depression in the fair
ground embankment, to raise the bank at least two feet in order to keep
the waters which had been accumulating from flowing over the bank into
the city. Mayor Roberts promptly secured a force and went to work
with energy and determination to do all that could be done to keep back
if possible the waters, and up to midnight Monday had succeeded ad-
mirably in holding them in check. But the continued rains for the past
few days had swollen the White Water and Miami Rivers to such an ex-
tent that it was soon evident that it would be impossible to keep up the
embankment of the "Big Four" Railroad from this city to Hardintown,
and the most that could be expected was to hold the waters back until
morning or daylight. But at about 4 o'clock Tuesday morning, the 2l8t,
the waters from the Miami were thrown against the "Big Four'' Rail-
road track with excessive pressure, on account of the barrier formed by
the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, which would not permit the accumu-
lated waters to pass into the Ohio River, when at a point just below the
locks, at Hardintown, and a point opposite the Trough Pond, near
Nicholas Fox's, the water broke through, and it was not long until it was
rushing with fearful velocity, and in vast volumes through the upper
OHIO RIVER FLOODS. 195
end of the city, carrying terrible destruction in its wide and rapidly ex-
tending pathway. The screams of the people in the lower parts of the
town, when they were aroused to the fact that they were surrounded by
the flood of waters, were distressing in the extreme. The Mayor had
arranged for giving a signal of alarm by the ringing of the church bells,
and when it was known that the flood was coming the bells pealed out
their terrible warning, and at the same time the flood gates at the lower
end of the city were opened, and the torrent of waters came rushing from
both directions with equal destructive force until they met at Walnut
Street, like two mighty giant monsters of the deep amid its angry waves
struggling for the supremacy of the sea, until both ended their existence
in death, and thus the waters ceased their angry flow.
"Although it was generally known that it would be impossible to
keep the waters out of the city, and that many of the houses were ten
feet or more below the surface of the water in the river, yet compara-
tively few persons were prepared when the rush of waters came. The
result was the loss of individual property has been very gi-eat. Not so
much in the aggregate of dollars and cents, however, as that it came to a
class of people not able to lose anything — yet in many cases it took all
they had, even to their houses. Both in the upper and lower end of the
city quite a number of small houses could be ween overturned, while
others had floated away from their foundations. It is surprising how
many families were driven so hastily from their homes, on account of the
sudden rise of the water within the city limits, which in its mad career
seemed to wash, upturn and drive everything before it. Hardly two
hours had elapsed from the time the water broke its barriers until it
was in every part of the city doing its work of devastation, and yet we
have heard of but one death.
"The men employed in their skifi"s and hastily provided boats did
noble work in rescuing the people from the great peril in which they
were so suddenly found. Large numbers of families took shelter in the
public school buildings, in the court house, in the stove works, in the
lodge rooms and other large rooms on High Street, as well as with pri-
vate families, and it may be said that over a thousand persons were made
homeless for the night at least. It was but a short time after getting
housed until they were provided with food and made as comfortable as it
was possible to make them under such unforeseen circumstances and the
short time which was given to work.
"The waters continued to rise until about 4 o'clock Tuesday after
noon, and from that time until midnight there was but little change,
when it began to fall. In the afternoon it had covered High Street,
with the exception of here and there a small portion of the center of the
196 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
street could be seen as dark spots above the water. High Street being
the highest street in old Lawrenceburgh, this part of the city therefore
was entirely submerged. The store houses, with floors even with the
pavements, had a few inches of water on their first floor. On all streets
besides High the buildings were more or less filled with water, ranging
from one foot to fifteen feet."
1883. — Early in February of this year the continued rains and
gradual rising of the river had been a topic of conversation at Law-
renceburgh, but notwithstanding the Ohio and Miami Elvers had been
making encroachments on the high lands, hopes were entertained that the
river would not exceed that of 1882, and that the levee, though known to
be weak at the points filled after the washout of the preceding Feb-
ruary, would be sufficient to hold the waters in check, but the people were
doomed to bitter disappointment. The whole city was completely sub-
merged except a few squares in Newtown. High Street, the highest
street in what is termed Oldtown, or the principal part of the city was
under water on an average of about six feet, and there was not, in the
main part of the city, a single house of which the first floor was not
under water. The stores all along High Street had an average of about five
and one-half feet of water in them, and along Elm, Short, Walnut and
other streets leading from the river, the depth of water increased,
and in many cases the water reached the second story. In 1882 the
waters were enabled to flow over High Street by the aid of a boom from
the Miami, but the Ohio failed to reach this street, the highest street in
the city, only at the extreme upper end. In 1888, however, the Ohio
Eiver became the ruling master, and took complete possession of the city,
and covered its highest street to the depth of six feet.
With such a depth of water running with rapid current through the
city, it was to be expected that the loss of property would be enormous.
Aside from the loss of merchants, grocery men and business men, the
destruction of houshold goods and personal property was enormous.
The loss of buildings also was great. Eight manufacturing establish-
ments, 2 business houses, 40 dwellings, and 3 stables were entirely
destroyed, and 179 dwelling houses, 133 barns and stables, 19 shops,
6 business houses, removed from their foundations. Graham & Marshall
lost heavily in lumber and had their saw-mill swept away, while Henry
Fitch's losses were nearly as large, although his mill stood firm.
As the water disappeared the destruction of property became more
apparent. The houses generally presented a very shattered appearance;
the windows were broken out, doors and sash smashed, and where the fur-
niture had not been removed, bureaus, bedsteads, tables, and safes were
tm-ned upside down, mirrors smashed, carpets, bed-clothing and wear-
OHIO RIVER FLOODS. 197
ing apparel covered with slimy mud, and pianos injured beyond
rep air.
1884. — The flood of February, 1884, was by far the greatest and
most destructive known since white men took possession of the Ohio
Valley. In December, of the winter of 1883-84, a great amount of
snow fell; over this was spread several inches of fine hail, so that the
amount of frozen water spread over the Ohio Valley was very great.
Throughout January more snow fell, only a portion of which melted.
Three feet of snow had fallen, and much of it was spread over the
valley, or accumulated in drifts. At last came the warm storms from the
southwest, and day after day there were heavy rains. All the conditions
existed for a disastrous flood. Nowhere was it more destructive and
frightful than at Lawrenceburgh. On Wednesday, Februai-y 6, 1884 at
about noon of that day, the levee was still holding back the water
between old Lawrenceburgh and Newtown and Hardintown; but along
High Street, between Elm and St. Clair Streets, the waters from the Ohio
began to pour into the city. Up to 10 o'clock at night but a very small
part of the city had been visited by the waters, but at about this hour the
levee at the locks, just below Hardintown, gave way, and the rushing
element came with all its fury, spreading in wild confusion over the
fields beyond, and in a few hours extending with rapidity all over the
city, but, unlike 1882, it met the water from the Ohio, and thus the
force of the current was broken, and but little damage was done to
property on account of the rush of waters.
By 1 o'clock Thursday morning, the waters covered High Street, with
the exception of that part of the street between Charlotte Street and the
railroad crossing at the Miami Valley Furniture Factory. This point,
the highest on High Street, was the last to become submerged. From
this hour (Thursday morning at 6 o'clock) at which time there was about
twelve inches on High Street, the rise was gradual until Thursday, the
14th; at 5:45 P. M., it came to a stand-still, and then remained appar-
ently stationary for nearly five' hours, when it began slowly to recede,
until on Thursday morning, 21st inst., the most of High Street was again
visible, after being beneath the flood of waters for two weeks.
The water rose to such height that the force of its lifting power alone
was sufficient to upturn buildings and break them in two; but to this
force was added a boisterous wind-stoi'm that shook the buildings to their
bases and lashed them with the furious waves until hundreds of build-
ings of various kinds left their foundations to be tossed upon the waters,
broken to pieces or carried bodily into the river and lost forever to their
owners.
On Thursday morning, February 15th, at 6 o'clock, the waters reached
198 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
their highest point, being two feet eight inches higher at Lawrenceburgh
than ever before known. The heights at various places in the city are
here given:
Ferris' drug store, 8 feet 4 inches; Jordan's drug store, 8 feet 7 inches;
Indiana House, 22 inches on second floor; Hilhnan's store, lOfeet 5 inches;
Kieflfer's store, 5 inches on second floor; postoffice. 9 feet 5 inches; court
house, 4 feet 6 inches; People's Bank, 8 feet 10 inches; Methodist
Church, 1 inch on second floor. •
The entire village of Hardintown was under waterfor twelve days,
and its inhabitants took refuge in the Bellview Church and with friends.
Relief committees were organized and contributions were promptly
sent from all parts of the country. The Lawrenceburgh Relief Commit-
tee received and disbursed over S20,000.
Large quantities of provisions were bought, and liberal donations of
bedding, clothing, food and coal were received from various parts of the
country to relieve the distresses of the 3,000 persons driven from their
homes by the flood. When the waters subsided many houses were found
wrecked, which the owners were unable to repair. A blank form of ap-
plication for relief was prepared and the owner was required to show,
under oath, his or her inability to repair the damages. One hundred
and eighty -seven of these were tiled, of which 160 were granted.
Eleven houses were completely swept away, tifty-four were off the
foundation, some of them several hundred feet, and fourteen of them
turned over. An efficient force of movers, carpenters, stone and brick
masons, plasterers, and laborers were engaged to repair the damages.
The executive committee compromised a large number of cases,
allowing the owners to do the work themselves, or have it done, and the
amount was paid on certificate that it was completed.
The following is a table of the highest water marks, as kept on record
at Cincinnati, for the years mentioned below:
1833, February 18 64 feet 3 in.
1847, December 17 63 feet 7 in.
1859, February 22 55 feet 5 in.
1862, January 24 57 feet 4 in.
1865, March 7 56 feet 3 in.
1867, March 14 55 feet 8 in.
1870, January 19 55 feet 3 in.
1875, August 6 55 feet 5 in.
1882, February 21 58 feet 7 in.
1883, February 15 66 feet 4 in.
1884, February 14 71 feet f in.
The river gauge at Cincinnati is at the water works. The zero of the
guage corresponds, as nearly as it was possible to make it at the time it
was established, with the Four-mile Bar above the city. The figures
MILITARY HISTORY. 199
above given show the depth of the water on that bar, and are not a true
guide to water in the river channel. When there is twenty-three inches
of water on the Four-mile Bar there is fifteen feet in the channel oppo-
site the water- works. If thirteen feet, therefore, be added to the above
figures, it will approximate the depth of water in the channel at
Cincinnati,
On account of the greater quantities of water poured out from the
Great Miami at some floods than others, the relative heights at Cincinnati
and Lawrenceburgh are not the same; thus, in 1884, the waters at Cin-
cinnati were four feet eight and three-fourths inches higher than in 1883,
while at Lawrenceburgh they were but three feet four inches higher.
CHAPTER XIII.
MILITARY HISTORY.
Revolutionary Soldiers— The War of 1812— The Mexican War—
The Civil War— The Honorable Record of Dearborn and Ohio
Counties in the Struggle for the Union— The Morgan Raid-
Drafts and Bounties— War Expenditures of the Counties— Aid
Societies — Rejoicing at the Surrender of Lee.
AMONG the pioneers who settled in Dearborn County were a num-
ber who served in the Revolutionary war, and the following is a
list prepared by George W. Lane of the soldiers of that great struggle
for freedom whose remains are buried within the limits of the county:
Capt. Joseph Hayes. Winthrop Robinson. Joseph Barlow. '
Col. Zebulon Pike. Enoch Sackett. William Kerr.
Capt. Isaac Cannon. Jacob Toothman. James Skeets.
Maj. John Calhoun. William White. James Dykman.
Ephraim Morrison. James Scott. Henry Raymer.
Peter Carbaugh. Jabez Percival. John Sackett.
John Baker. Capt. John Crandon. Baylis Cloud.
Samuel Marsh. Capt. Hugh Dunn. Job Judd.
Samuel Richardson. John DeMcss. Elijah Rich.
Joseph Hannegan. Isaac Way. Jonas Frazier.
Jacob Taylor. John Day. Mr. Burroug.
The following is an incomplete list of the pioneers of Ohio County
who were Revolutionary soldiers:
Noah Miller, from New Jersey, served in the "Jersey Line," partici-
pated in many skirmishes and in the hard-fought battle of Monmouth,
N. J., suffering severely in the latter engagement.
200 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Hannaniah Rollins served in the "Jersey Line," entering the service
in his sixteenth year. About 1777 he was attached to the band, or to the
"music," as it was termed, as fifer, was promoted to iife-major, and
served his country to the end of the war.
Ephraim Bobbins, a native of Connecticut, served in the war, partici-
pating in several skirmishes, and was wounded in a skirmish which took
place in Rhode Island.
John Fulton (a soldier) and wife were made prisoners by the Indians
in 1780, during the Revolutionary war, and remained captives one year.
Benjamin Chambers was commissioned by the Continental Congress
an ensign in the First Pennsylvania Regiment in 1778, when not fifteen
years of age, and in the following year was made a lieutenant. He was
in active service several years, and was distinguished for gallant bearing
on the field of battle.
James Stewart, who died near Rising Sun in 1833, at the age of
seventy-eight years, was a Revolutionary patriot.
N
THE WAK OF 1812.
Dearborn County, we believe, furnished no organizations that were
engaged in the Indian campaigns, but she did, under the direction of
Gen. Harrison, organize a company under Gen. James Dill, commanded
by Capt. James McGuire, which max'ched from Lawrenceburgh to
Lebanon, Ohio, then the place of rendezvous of the troops raised in the
counties of southwestern Ohio, and, it appears from what follows, thence
marched to Piqua, Ohio, but were there met with the information that the
Indians were advancing on the frontier, and were ordered back to
Lawrenceburgh to protect the frontier settlements.
The part the county played in this war is set forth in the following
article, written in 1862, and published in the Aurora Comriiercial over
the signature of E. Chafin:
'^Soldiering in 1812. — Mr. Editor, I will give you a little of our ex-
perience of camp life in 1812-13. We first volunteered in a company
under Capt. James McGuire, in the fall of 1811, to join Gen. Harrison's
army, but before we were organized the battle of Tippecanoe was fought,
and we stood as minute men until after the declaration of war with
Great Britain, June 18, 1812. On the 1st of August following we or-
ganized again under Capt. McGuire, were attached to Maj. Shatter's Bri"
gade, and marched to Piqua, on the Mad River, in Ohio, where we joined
Gen. Harrison's army. We were there some two weeks, when an ex-
press arrived from old Dearborn to Gen. Harrison, who ordered us to
countermarch to Indiana Territory to protect the frontier.
"Our company built a block-house at Brookville, commanded by Lieut.
MILITARY HISTORY.
201
Breckinridge; one on Tanner's Creek, commanded by Capt. Blasdell,
and a third on Laughery, where Capt. McGuire afterward lived. We
scouted from one of these block-houses to the other until April 1, 1813,
when we were mustered out, and returned to our homes. With all our
scouting, the Indians were watching iis, as the sequel proved. The
block- houses were not filled for nearly a week, and during that time the
Indians stole eight horses and a large quantity of tobacco from Isaac
Allen, on South Hogan, and two horses from Nicholas Lindsay, who
lived where George Lane now lives. They also spoiled three or four
yoke of cattle by cutting their ham-strings. Many of the inhabitants then
moved over into Kentucky for fear of the Indians, but 'old Kentuck' sent
us Capt. Seabury, with his company, who chased the Indians across
White River; they found the river so swollen that they had to give up
the chase and return. Maj. Nichols, of Wilmington, and Conrad Huff-
man were both in the chase. They are both dead. I have been
acquainted with them both for fifty years."
NAMES OF SOLDIEES OF THE WAR OF
1812.
The following list of citizens of Dearborn County who served in the
second war with England was prepared by Greorge W. Lane:
Samuel C. Vance.
James Dill.
John Weaver.
James W. Weaver.
Justice Sortwell.
Decker Crozier.
James McGuire.
Samuel Ewan.
George Greer.
Joseph Morgan.
Samuel Frazier.
William Randall.
Dr. Samuel Martin.
Obediah Priest.
Thomas Annis.
Ephraim Hollister.
Jesse Sacket.
John Greenfield.
Warren Tebbs.
Johnson Watts.
Aaron Bonham.
Joshua Yerkees.
James Salmon.
Casper Johnson.
George Lewis. —
Maston Isgrigg.
Willobv Tebbs.
Enoch Blasdell.
Abijah Decker.
William Majors
Stephen Thorn.
William King.
Jonathan Lewis.
Timothy Kimble.
James Bruce.
Elial Chafin.
Thomas Kyle.
Jonathan AUee.
Isaac Randall
Garret Swallow.
T. N. Burroughs.
Joseph Daniels.
Samuel Perry.
Thomas Porter.
Maj. John Lewis.
Ellis Williamson.
Israel Bonham.
Nathan Lewis.
Obediah Voshell.
Thomas Johnson. -
James Dart.
Isaac Taylor.
William Webb.
James Cloud.
Thomas Ehler.
William Maserve.
James King.
Joshua Staples.
Ferdinand Turner.
George Rudisal.
Thomas Covington
John Durham.
-George Mason.
Levi Garrison.
Jesse Calaway.
Job Judd, Jr.
Joseph Judd.
Jacob Rudisal.
Maj. Jeremiah John-Alex Roseberry.
son, Sr. Nathaniel Tucke
James C. Cornelius, ©aleb Roseberry.
Ira Cloud.
Thomas Dart.
Michael Farran.
Richard Pippin.
John Lilly.
Caleb Johnson.
Capt. Robert Brack-
enridge.
Spencer Wyley.
Job Hayes.
William Ashby.
Capt. Charles Stev-
ens.
John White.
J. Brackenidge.
Nicholas Mason.
John Majors.
James Eads.
Samuel Johnson.
Robert Gullett.
John Durham.
William Green.
Stephen Green.
Philip Mason.
John Burk.
Daniel Mason.
Aquilla Cross.
John Mason.
Matthew Lamdon.
Samuel Thornton.
John Tanner.
Baylcss Ashby.
William Lake.
James Ofield.
Robert Majors.
Elijah Eads.
Thomas Hackelman.
Noyes Canfield.
James Withrow.
James Boyd.
Capt. StepheaWood.
James Powell.
Joseph Plummer.
Daniel Salmon.
Samuel Roberts.
Charles Clements.
Enoch Pugh.
Col. Henry Miller.
/-'Valentine Lawrence. James Holmes, Sr
/ Finlev Judd.
Michael Rudisal.
Jerry Johnson, Jr.
Maj. Thomas Brac-
kenridge.
John Hall.
Joseph Huston.
William Caldwell.
Jacob Fielding.
Edwards Clements.
Luther Plummer.
202 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
We have been unable to obtain a complete list of the soldiers of the
war of 1812, who resided in Dearborn County, south of Laughery Creek.
The following is a partial list and includes the names of those buried in
the Rising Sun (Graveyard:
Henry Palmer, Morris Merrill, Nathaniel L. Squibb (entered the
army as a drummer at the age of fifteen years), Capt. John I. French
William Goldson, Sooter McAdams, Benjamin Moulton (Kanger)
Mathew Cadwell, Abel C. Pepper, Thomas Lindsay, George Hewett
Thomas Jones, Robert McGuffin, William Padgett, James B. Smith, Jere
miah Clore, Andrew Y. McComb, Thomas , Bradley, Mr. Ricketts, Levi
Winters, Rev. James Jones, Martin Mitchell, William O'Neal, William
Tilton, Gilbert Hall, Daniel Taber, Robert E. Covington.
THE MEXICAN WAR.
Immediately on the proclamation of President Polk calling for three
regiments from Indiana, James H. Lane, then a merchant of Lawrence-
burgh, organized a company ( F ) of volunteers for the Mexican War,
and was the first to report to the governor the organization of a company.
Jefiersonville was made the place of rendezvous, where, on the organ-
ization of the Third Indiana Volunteer Regiment, James H. Lane was
elected its colonel, and George Dunn, of Lawrenceburgh, succeeded Lane
in the captaincy ^of the company. The regiment went immediately to
Mexico, and participated in the battle at Buena Vista. At the com-
mencement of the battle the Third Regiment was placed in the reserve;
during the progress of the battle a number of brigades were forced back,
and the Third Regiment was ordered to the front and maintained its
position during the entire battle, and was the only regiment that did not
retreat in the face of the enemy during the entire engagement, thereby
redeeming the honor and credit of the State of Indiana.
A second call was made upon Indiana the following year for soldiers,
and Ebenezer Dumont, of Lawrenceburgh, organized and reported a com-
pany ready for service; and under the same call, Capt. William Bald-
ridge, of Lawrenceburgh (late of Pennsylvania), organized a company
and was chosen its captain. On the organization of the regiment— the
Fourth Indiana Volunteers — Ebenezer Dumont was elected lieutenant-
colonel, and Thomas J. Lucas, of Lawrenceburgh, was chosen captain of
the company, succeeding Dumont.
The Fourth Regiment was ordered to Vera Cruz, and was assigned to
the main army under Gen. Scott. On their march they learned that
Santa Anna was at a certain point, and a portion of one of the Law-
renceburgh companies was detached, under Capt. Thomas J. Lucas, who
advanced so rapdily that he came near taking Santa Anna himself, reach-
MILITARY HISTORY. 203
ing the house in which he had slept the night previously, while the bed
he had occupied was yet warm, Anna having left in such haste that his
wooden leg was left behind.
The term of enlistment of the Third Regiment having expired, it,
with the colonel, returned to Indiana. Col. Lane by the authority of the
President then organized from all parts of the State the Fifth Regiment
Indiana Volunteers, one company of which was from Dearborn County.
The place of rendezvous of the regiment was at Madison, where James
H. Lane was elected^colonel of the regiment. The regiment was at once
ordered to the front, and joined the main army of Gen. Scott at the City
of Mexico. The regiment, together with^ the Fourth, remained in the
service until peace was declared.
The Fifth Regiment, while yet in Mexico, held a meeting of its officers
and men, and voted their colonel, James H. Lane, a sword to cost |1,000.
The funds were placed in the hands of a committee, which purchased
the sword and presented it to Lane on ,hi8 return from the war. This
sword was in his house at Lawrence, Kas., when Quantrell made his
murderous attack on that city, and before leaving Lane's house stole it,
with many other valuables in the house. During the pursuit of the
retreating rebels, Col. Lane found the sword, took it home and it has
since remained in the family as an heirloom.
THE CIVIL WAR.
The people of Dearborn and Ohio Counties may well cherish with
pride their record in the war of the Rebellion. When the national flag
was fired on the people were prompt and thorough in response to the call
to arms, and men of all parties exhibited alacrity and patriotism in
bearing their share of the burdens of the momentous struggle.
On the receipt of the intelligence of the fall of Fort Sumter, the
excitement throughout both counties was intense. Ordinary occupations
and pursuits were almost forgotten. Lawrenceburgh, Aurora and Ris-
ing Sun were thronged with an excited populace, asking for the latest
news from the seat of hostilities. The people's patriotism ran high, and
the loyal men of all parties, forgetting past differences, announced their
readiness to follow their country's call.
The following history of Dearborn County in the war of 1861-65,
under this head^ was prepared by Capt. Alexander B. Pattison,of Aurora:
The record of Dearborn County in the war of the Rebellion, shows it
to have been second to no other county of equal population in the State.
It was one of the first to respond to the call for troops, and within twen-
ty-four hours after the firing on Fort Sumter, three companies had of-
fered their services, and were soon under way to the State capital for
muster into the Seventh Regiment for three months. These three com-
204 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
panies were Company D, of Lawrenceburgb, with Benjamin J. Spooner
as captain, who, after being mustered in, was succeeded by John F.
Cheek (Capt. Spooner being promoted to lieutenant-colonel), David E.
Sparks, first lieutenant, and Jesse Armstrong, second lieutenant, with 75
enlisted men; Company Gr, of Lawrenceburgb, with Nathan Lord as
captain, L. H. Stephens, first lieutenant, William Francis, second lieu-
tenant, with 75 enlisted men; Company E, of Aurora, with John H.
Ferry as captain, Henry Waller as first lieutenant, and Alexander B.
Pattison as second lieutenant. These three companies formed the van
guard of what afterward proved almost ^n army of itself that went from
Dearborn County. They were followed next by two companies for the
Sixteenth Regiment, of one year troops — Company G, with Albert G.
Dennis as captain, William J. Fitch, first lieutenant, and Philip Dex-
heimer, second lieutenant, with 78 enlisted men, and Company I, from
Aurora, with John A. Platter as captain; William Copeland, first lieuten-
ant; Israel Phalin, second lieutenant, .with 84 enlisted men. The Six-
teenth organized with Thomas J. Lucas as lieutenant-colonel, and Ed-
ward Jones as chaplain from the county. Later the Seventh Regiment
reorganized for the three years' service with one company, A, from Aurora^
John H. Ferry, captain; Alexander B. Pattison, first lieutenant, and Ben-
jamin F. Burlingame as second lieutenant, with 108 enlisted men, in-
cluding recruits; served three years; lost by death while in the service,
24; mustered out at end of service, 33. Company K, of Lawrenceburgh,
with Jesse Armstrong as captain; Homer Chismar, first lieutenant, and
James F.Vaughn, second lieutenant, with 111 enlisted men; lost by death
during service, 19; mustered out at end of service, 31.
In the Eighteenth Regiment was Thomas Pattison, colonel, and A.
P. Daughters, surgeon. With Company A — captain, Jesse L. Holman;
first lieutenant, Robert G. Cunningham; second lieutenant, Judson B.
Tyler, and 108 enlisted men; lost by death, 6; mustered out at end of the
service of three years, 21.
Enlisted in tbe Thirty-second Regiment was Company C, with John
L. Giegoldt as captain ; Max Sachs, first lieutenant, and Henry Bellman
second lieutenant, with 130 enlisted men; lost by death during service,
22; mustered out at end of enlistment, 32 men. Company D, with John
Schwartz as captain; Frank Knorr, first lieutenant; Emanuel Eller, sec-
ond lieutenant, with 122 enlisted men; lost by death during service, 19;
mustered out at end of service, 50 men.
Enlisted in the Thirty- seventh regiment from Dearborn County,
Company F, with Wesley G. Markland as captain; John B. Hodges,
first lieutenant, and Joseph P. Stoops, second lieutenant, with 101 en-
listed men; lost by death, 24; mustered out at end of service, 43.
MILITARY HISTORY. 207
For the Forty-fifth (Third Cavalry) Regiment, Dearborn County fur-
nished Company D, with Daniel B. Kiester as captain; Mathew B. Ma-
son, first lieutenant; Henry F. Wright as second lieutenant, with 84
enlisted men; lost by death, 10; mustered out at end of service, 36.
The county furnished to the Fifty-second Regiment, Company C, with
George W. Tyer as captain; William Francis, first lieutenant and Eli
Mattox, second lieutenant, with 100 enlisted men; lost by death during
service, 11; mustered out at end of service, 41.
To the Eighty-third Regiment there was sent Benjamin J. Spooner,
as colonel; George H. Scott, as lieutenant-colonel; Henry C. Vincent
and Samuel M. VVeaver, assistant surgeons. Company B, with Jacob
W. Eggleston, as captain; Henry Gerkin, first lieutenant; Dandridge E.
Kelsey, second lieutenant, with 113 enlisted men; lost by death during
service, 30; mustered out at end of service, 37.
Company H, with James M. Crawford, as captain; John Rawling,
first lieutenant, and Ferris J. Nowlin, second lieutenant; with 92 enlist-
ed men; lost daring enlistment, 20; mustered out at end of enlistment,
42. Company I, with Henry J. Bradford, as captain; William N. Craw,
first lieutenant, and George W. Lowe, second lieutenant; with 91 en-
listed men; deaths during term of service, 18; mustered out at end of
enlistment, 37 men; while in the same regiment there were 75 more men
from Dearborn County distributed to the other companies.
To the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, Company I, with
George W. Shockley, as captain; Edwin T. Gibson, first lieutenant, and
George W. Wood, as second lieutenant, with 95 enlisted men; all mus-
tered out at end of 100 days, the term of enlistment.
To the One Hundred and Forty-sixth Regiment, Company G, with
Josiah Dorn, as captain; Sanford Briddle, first lieutenant, and Enoch Al-
len, second lieutenant, with 100 enlisted men; lost by death, 4; mus-
tered out at end of enlistment, 82.
Dearborn County also furnished one company to the Eleventh Ken
lucky Volunteers, with F. Slater, captain, afterward promoted to colonel
of the regiment; Edward H. Green, first lieutenant, with 80 enlisted
men; lost by death during service, 8; mustered out at end of enlist-
ment, 46.
The foregoing shows a grand total of 1,946 men enlisted in the
county, while, undoubtedly, a large number more enlisted in different
regiments in and without the State that we have no account of, and as
far as we have the i-ecord it also shows that there were killed, and died
while in the field, 224, and that there were mustered out with the regi-
ments at the expiration of their term of service, 661, the others having
been discharged, deserted, transferred to other regiments, taken prison-
208
HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES
ers, etc. Such is a brief statement of the number of men furnished by
Dearborn County during the war of the Rebellion, while there was
scarcely a battle fought during the war in which the county was not
represented.
The Indiana Regiments which contained the greatest number of men
from Ohio County were the Seventh, Eighty-third, Second Battery and
Fourth Cavalry.
The following is the list of the officers and men of Company I, of
tlie Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry (three months' service):
COMMISSIONED AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.
Capt. John W. Rabb.
First Lieut. Solomon Wixterman.
Second Lieut. David Loslutter.
All of Rising Sun.
First Sergt. Frank Gregory
Sergt. Joseph G. Bell.
Sergt. Hugh Jameson.
Sergt. Joseph S. Thompson.
Corp. Samuel S. Lynn.
Corp. Silas P. Richmond.*
Corp. Jerry McElvay.
Corp. Hudson Campbell.
Musician, Fred Garlinghouse.
Musician, William P. Ammen.
Adkins, Thomas J. Fortner, Jesse
Adkinson, James Fowler, Frank
Burgess, Levi H. Gockle, Wm. P.
Brunley, Riley Hunt, A. D.
Bennett, John Hardin, Allen
Bradshaw, Marion
Barker, Philip B. Hardy, John E.
Colley, John Husseman, John
Connell, George
PRIVATES.
Moore, Richard
McNutt, John P.
Pink, Samuel
Pink, Archibald
Piersou, Julius C.
Hourigan, Michael Neal, John
Neal, Charles
Richmond, Peter
Hayman, Henry T. Scoggin, Elisha
Smith, Joseph H.
Smith, James
Stelink, Henry
Tinker, James M.
Tinker, Wesley
Terrill, William
Van Antwert, Wm.
Vehouse, Frederick
Walker, M. C.
Walker, George
Walker, Edward
Wade, Harvey J.
Williams, Oliver D.
Williams, Orville G.
Williams, Jerome B.
Yarnell, Daniel
Yonker, Hartley
Cunningham, Martin Harrison, Ellis
Dodd, John W. Jennings, D. A.
Dodd, Thomas M. Lemons, Geo. W. Smith, Henry H.
Degner, Charles Loslutter, Chris Smith, Ephraim
Eastman, William C.Lakin, Frank Summers, Jesse
Elias, Hamilton McQuithey, J. B. Stout, John W.
Elstar, Levi H. Maloue, Joseph Stephenson, Geo. W.
The Seventh Regiment was organized and mustered into service for
three months, at Indianapolis, April 25, 1861, with Ebeuezer Dumont
(who bad served with distinction in the Mexican war) as colonel. On
the 29th of May it was ordered to West Virginia and proceeded at once
by rail to Grafton. On the 2d of June it proceeded by rail to Webster,
where it was joined by other regiments. The entire force was then
divided into two columns under the immediate command of Col. Kelley,
and was marched to Philippi, the Seventh being in advance. The
advance guard under Lieut. Benjamin Ricketts, of Company B, Avhen
within a mile of the town, engaged the enemy's pickets and drove them
back. The Seventh, followed by the rest of the column, crossed a bridge
MILITARY HISTORY. 209
and entered the town at double-quick, driving the rebels before them
out of the town and two miles beyond. The regiment remained in camp
•at this place for six weeks, and then marched to Bealington, as part of
Gen. Morris' command. Here some skirmishing was had with the
enemy's pickets, and a reconnoissanee to the right and rear of their line
' made by a force of 500 men of the Seventh and Ninth Indiana, under
Col. Dumont. On the night of July 11, the rebels retreated from the
front of our troops, and in the morning the pursuit commenced— the
Seventh being in the rear— and was continued until 2 o'clock in the
afternoon, our forces halting at Leedsville. While here Capt. Blair and
Lieut. Tucker captured three rebel prisoners. The next morning the
march was resumed to St. George-Cheat River being forded on the
way. At Carrick's Ford the crossing was resisted by Gen. Garnett,
which was promptly met by the tire of the Fourteenth Ohio, Col'
Steadman, stationed on the bank of the river opposite the enemy.' The
Seventh Indiana then advanced and charged down the banks of the
river, crossed over, captured the enemy's baggage, and hiirried on in
pursuit of the retreating rebels. At the next ford, three quarters of a
mile from Carrick's Ford, the enemy made another stand, under the
personal command of Gen. Garnett. The resistance was brief, the
rebels flying and leaving their commander dead on the field. Col.' Du-
mont continued the pursuit for two miles and then halted for the night.
The next day the Seventh took up the line of march to St. George and
from thence to Bealington. After a few days' rest it was ordered to
Indianapolis, where it was mustered out of service.
Company C, of the Seventh Regiment Indiana Infantry (threel years'
service) had for its successive commissioned officers from "ohioj County:
OFFICERS.
Capt. Solomon Waterman. First Lieut. Jerome B. Williams ^
Capt. David Lostutter, Jr. First Lieut. Orville W. Williams v
Capt. Hugh Jamison. First Lieut. Robert E. Hall.
Capt. Orville D. Williams. First Lieut. Thomas M Dodd
Capt. Robert E. Hall. Second Lieut. SamueJ S. Lynn
First Lieut. David Lostutter, Jr. Second Lieut. Hugh Jamison
First Lieut. Samuel S. Lynn. Second Lieut. Jerome B. Williams ^
First Lieut. Hugh Jamison. Second Lieut. John W. Dodd.
The enlisted men were:
First Sergt. Hugh Jamison. Corp. Henry Stealing.
Sergt. Jerome B. Williams. Corp. Marcus C. Wallier.
Sergt. Julius C. Pearson. Corp. Abel C. Pepper French
Sergt. Orville D. Williams. Corp. Henry T. Hayman.
Sergt. Thomas M. Dodd. Corp. Jacob J. Burnett.
Corp. Calvin F. Monroe. Musician James F. Lemon.
Corp. John W. Dodd. Musician George W. Righter
Corp. George W. Lemon. Wagoner William Abbott.
210
HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
PRIVATES.
Allen, Isaac M.
Allen, Nath'l M. C.
Bennett, George W.
Burns, Richard
Bradshaw, Mason B.
Campbell, Sam. M.
Carpenter, Dan. T.
Clark, George
Clark, William H.
Collins, John
Collins, Armstrong
Conaway, Joseph
Conradd, John
Craft, Israel Loriny
Crandall, Reed N.
Delph, Jonas T.
Delph, Willis M.
Dugle, William H.
Dugle, Samuel
Eastman, Philip
Eggleston, Aaron D.
Fisher, Charles
Fox, James M.
Gibbous, Oliver P.
Grace, Richard D.
Hall, Robert Elwood
Hare, William
Hodges, John
Holcraft, Jeremiah
Holden, William G.
Huston, James C.
Huston, Isaac M.
Israel, Elijah
Jones, David
Kelley, John M.
Kittle, William H.
Lambert, William
Lemon, Henry Clay
Lewis, Robert B.
Loder, James W.
Longwood, Mort. S.
Majors, John
Marker, Harmon H.
McCullough, H. H.
McKnight, John
Miller, Benj. Jr.
Mitchell, Robert B.
Monroe, William
Mullen, William
Nieman, Martin F.
Oatman, William
Otenchultz, H.
Pate, Charles E.
Pate, Jackson I.
Pearce, William H.
Pink, Archibald I.
Powell, John H.
Randall, Alex., Sr.
Randall, Alex., Jr.
Reinhardt, Herman
Richmond, Peter S.
Rieman, William
Schwertzfezer, F.
Simons, Theodore L.
Stewart, Charles L.
Sterling, Charles W.
Stopher, Andrew J.
Summers, Frank
Tinker, James M.
Tinker, James
Thompson, Martin
Tuttle, Sanford
Tyler, Nathan
W^alton, William H.
Walker, William
Welch, Benjamin F.
Williams, Alex. B.
Williamson, J.
Williamson, Albert
Wilson. James S.
Winn, Peter
Yonge, Robert G.
Armstrong, G. M.
Courtney. M. H.
Gibbins, William
Hewitt, George
Keller, Jacob S.
Kelly, Oliver P.
Lee, John C.
Longwood, Theo.
Miles, Thomas L.
Mier, William F.
North, Pinkney A.
Pugh, Sampson M.
Sink, William F.
Williams, Charles
Williams, Oliver G.
Wilson, James
Williamson, J.
The regiment was reorganized at Indianapolis, and was mustered in
for three years' service, September 13, 1861, with Ebenezer Dumont as
colonel. It moved at once into Western Virginia and joined Gen. Key-
nolds' command at Cheat Mountain. On the 3d of October, it participated
in the battle of Green Brier, and soon after moved up the Shenandoah
Valley, camping near Green Spring Run. At Winchester it was engaged
in the battle of Winchester Heights, March 23, 1862, and also in the en-
gagements at Port Republic on the 9th of June, and at Front Royal on
the 12th of the same month. It then marched to Fredericksburgh and
back again to the Shenandoah, under Gen. Shields, after which it was
assigned to Gen. McDowell's command. The regiment was with Gen.
Pope's forces in the campaign of the Army of Virginia, participating in
the tight at Slaughter Mountain, August 9, 1862, and the second battle of
Bull Run on the 30th of August. The regiment was engaged in the pur-
suit of Lee during the invasion of Maryland, and took part in the battle of
Antietam, on the 17th of September, losing two killed and eight wounded.
It was next engaged at Ashby's Gap, or Union, on the 2d of November,
suifering a loss of four killed and six wounded. It participated in the
MILITARY HISTORY. 211
battle of Fredei'icksburgh, under Gen. Burnside, on the 13th of Decem-
ber. During the next year's campaign the Seventh was engaged in the
great battles at Chancellorsville, on the 2d, 3d, 4th and 5th of May, and
at Gettysburg on the 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th of July, losing heavily in both en-
gagements. At the close of the campaign of 1863, it participated in the bat-
tle of Mine Run, November 30. The spring of 1864 found the Seventh
in camp at Culpepper, from whence it moved with the Army of the Poto-
mac in Grant's last great campaign, participating in the following
battles: in the Wilderness, on the 5th and 6th of May; at Laurel Hill, on
the 8th of May; at Spottsylvania, on the 10th and 12th of May; at Po
River,, at North Anna River, on the 25th of May; at Bethesda Church, on
30th and 31st of May and 1st of June, and at Cold Harbor, on the 3d of
June. In these engagements the regiment was under fire for eighteen
days and suffered severely. On the 16th of June it crossed the James
River to join the assault on Petersburgh, and was engaged the day follow-
ing in the desperate but unsuccessful attempt to carry the rebel works at
that place. Here the regiment remained, participating in the siege of
Petersburgh until the 18th of August, when it moved with that portion
of the army, selected for the purpose, on the Weldon Railroad, with the
view of cutting the same, and was engaged in the battle near Yellow
House, on the 19th of August. On the 23d of September, in pursuance
of orders from the general commanding the corps to which it was
attached, the Seventh Regiment was consolidated with the Nineteenth
regiment of Indiana Volunteers, and afterward, on the 18th 6t October,
this new oi'ganization was again consolidated with the Twentieth Regi-
ment Indiana Volunteers. Upon the final discharge of the Twentieth,
July 12, 1865, the veterans and recruits that had been transferred to
it from the Seventh Regiment, were also mustered out, and on the
same day returned to Indianapolis with it for final payment.
Company C, of the Eighty- third Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infan-
try, had for its successive commissioned officers:
Capt.Metellus Calver?, Rising Sun. First Lieut. Wm. H. Smith.
Capt. Benj. North, Grant's Greek. First Lieut. E.G. North, Grant's Creek.
Capt. Wra. H. Smith, Rising Sun. Second Lieut. T. Shehane, Fairwiew.
First Lieut. Benj. North. Second Lieut. Eli Harrison, Rising Sun.
The enlisted men were:
First Sergt. Wm. H. Smith. Corp. John J. Douglass.*
Sergt. Ernest C. North.* Corp. John Monroe.
Sergt. Edmund Miller.* Corp. Wm. P. Conner.
Sergt. Riley Brumly. Corp. John D. Sams.*
Sergt. Eli Harrison. Corp. Pleasant M. Shafer.
Corp. John Bennett. Musician-David C. Thorn.
Corp. James Kay. Musician Jacob Hess.*
Corp. Wm. H. North.* Wagoner Daniel K. Crandall.
212
HISTORY OP DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
PRIVATES.
Douglass, Wm. B.* Kyle, Robert*
Drake, Jonathan*
Drake, Lemuel*
Englehart, H. D.
Facemire, J. W.*
Fish, Martin*
Fisher, Wm. H.
Gregorj^ John W.
Hamilton, M. T.*
Harman, Jacob*
Harris, Hosier J.*
Hatfield, Abner*
Hess, Frederick*
Hewitt, Joseph M.
Lare, John C.
Lewis, Samuel J.
Long, Peter
Mead, Edwin R.*
Miller, James E.
Miller, Benj. F.
Monroe, Henry
Moore, George
Moreland, James
Myers, Jonathan
Neal. Chris C.
Nettle, Geo. W.
Korth, James M.'^
Hewitt, Henry VPalmer, Henry W.
House, James* Parker, Oscar
House, Michael* Pocock, Reuben*
Hutchinson, R. D.* Rains, Franklin
James, Ernest* Read, Wm. H.
Koons, John D. Reed, John A.
Rex. Wm.
Rice, John W.
Robinson, C*
Rodgers, John T.
Rollins, Benj. F.
Rusk. James W.*
Sedam, Charles
Shafer, C. B.*
Shafer, Thos. J.
Shelley, Silas*
Shelley, Joseph*
Shipman, James O.
Smith, John*
Steele, John A.
^ Tarbox, Nelson*
Theas, Ernest H.
Waldon. Wm.*
Ward, John
Weathers, John S.
Winters, Jeremiah.
RECRUITS.
Herrick, Joseph Hummel, E.
Howard, John Pryor, Wm.
W.
Scott, Theodore*
Ward, Joseph.
Bailey, Wm. G.*
Bailey, Daniel J.*
Beaty, John W.*
Brey, Orrin O.*
Bruner, John F.
Bruner, Marion
Callahan John M.
Clark, Jacob
Cloud, Wm.
Cloud, Daniel
Cochran, Oliver P.
Conaway, John W.
Conrad, Neal.
Coary, Samuel H.
Crouch, Joshua R.
Davis, Lanson*
Dodson, Joseph*
Dodson, Wm.
Dorman, Edward
Douglass, Geo. K.'*
Douglass, Arthur*
Davis, Aaron S
Fabian, John
Qaskill, Owen S.
The above company was not made up entirely of men from Ohio
County, a number being from adjoining territory, principally from
Switzerland County. Sixty-two men and officers are claimed from Ohio
County in the company. Those marked with a star are from adjoining
territory. Of the recruits, only the residence of Scott and Ward are
given.
The Eighty-third Regiment was organized at Lawrenceburgh,in Sep-
tember, 1862, with Benjamin J. Spooner as colonel, and in a few weeks
after left the State for the Mississippi River. The organization was
composed of nine companies of volunteers for three years, and one com-
pany of drafted men. The latter was discharged from service at the
expiration of nine months from the 15th of November, 1862. Upon
reaching Memphis the regiment was assigned to duty with the army then
operating in west Tennessee, and participated in the march to the Talla-
hatchie, and the first campaign against Vicksburg in December. In
the latter campaign it was actively engaged in the assault upon the
enemy's works at Chickasaw Bayou.
In January, 1863, it proceeded up the Mississippi with the expedi-
tionary force sent into Arkansas, and was engaged in the storming and
capture of Arkansas Post, on the Uth of January. After this it joined
MILITARY HISTORY. 213
Gen. Grant's army, then occupying Milliken's Bend and Young's Point,
and took part in the preliminary operations that opened the campaign
against Vicksburg. In the latter part of March it moved with the army
in its march to the rear of Vicksburg, and after crossing to the east side
of the Mississippi, engaged in the battle of Champion Hills, on the 16th
of May. The regiment then went into the entrenched works, fronting
those of the enemy at Vicksburg, and remained therein, almost con-
stantly on duty, until the capitulation of the enemy on the 4th of
July. While there it took part in the assaults upon the rebel works on
the 19th and 22d of May. The regiment next marched to Jackson, and
participated in the siege and capture of that place.
Upon the termination of the Vicksburg campaign, the Eighty-third
proceeded up the Mississippi, with Sherman's army, to Memphis, and
from thence marched across the country to Chattanooga, where, on the
25th of November, it participated in the great victory over the enemy at
Mission Ridge. During the winter of 1863 the regiment remained in
camp in the vicinity of Cleveland, Tenn., and in the spring following,
engaged in the Atlanta campaign. Marching with the Army of the
Tennessee, southward to Atlanta, it was actively engaged in all the
movements of that successful campaign, engaging in the battles at
Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, the repulse of
Hood's army on the 22d and 28th of July, near Atlanta, and the battle
of Jonesboro. After the occupation of Atlanta, the Eighty-third moved
northward in pursuit of Hood's army, and after aiding in driving the
enemy into northern Alabama, returned to Atlanta.
In November Sherman's army commenced its march through Georgia
to Savannah, and the Eighty-third moved with it, reaching Savannah on
the 21st of December. In the assault upon and capture of Fort Mc-
Allister, near Savannah, the regiment was engaged, thus opening Sher-
man's communications with the sea. It next proceeded to Beaufort,
from whence it marched through the Carolinas to Goldsboro, engaging
the enemy at Columbia, S. C, and Bentonville, N. C.
Upon the conclusion of active military operations in those States, the
regiment moved to Washington City, marching through Raleigh, Peters-
burgh, Richmond and Fredericksburgh. At Washington it formed a
portion of the marching column at the grand review of Sherman's
heroes, and on the 3d of June, 1865, was mustered out of service, and
proceeded homeward. Reaching Indianapolis, it was present at a grand
reception given to returned soldiers in the capitol grounds on the 9th of
June. On this occasion addresses were made by Gov. Morton, Gen,
Hovey and Col. Ben Spooner.
The remaining recruits, upon the muster out of the organization at
214
HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Washington, was transferred to the Forty-eighth Indiana, and continued
to serve with that regiment until its miigter out at Louisville, Ky.,
July 15, 1865.
The Eighty-third has traveled over 4,000 miles by land, 1,800 upon
steamboats and 485 by rail, making a total of 6,285 miles traveled
during its term of service. It has been engaged in several minor battles
and skirmishes in addition to those mentioned in this sketch, and has
been under tire for over 200 days.
The Second Battery Light Artillery, Indiana Volunteers, was organ-
ized at Indianapolis, on the 5th of August, and mustered into service
August 9, 1861, with David G. Rabb, Rising Sun, as captain. Its suc-
cessive commissioned officers were:
Capt. David G. Rabb.
Capt. Johu W. Rabb, Rising Sun.
Capt. Hugh Espey, Jr., Rising Sun.
First Lieut. John W. Rabb.
First Lieut. M. K. Haines, Rising Sun.
First Lieut. Hugh Espey, Jr.
First Lieut. M. H. Masterson, Salem.
First Lieut. Wm.W. Haines, Rising Sun.
On the reorganization of the battery the successive commissioned
officers were:
Capt. James S. Whicher. Second Lieut. John Stewart.
First Lieut. George B. Sink. Second Lieut. John Heardon, Huntsville.
First Lieut. John Stewart, Lewisville. Second Lieut.C.W. Johnson, Indianapolis.
The enlisted men from Ohio County, as nearly as can be obtained
(the place of residence of probably one half of the battery not given in
the adjutant-general's report) were as follows:
First Lieut. J. S. Whicher, Indianapolis.
Second Lieut. Hugh Espey, Jr.
Second Lieut. Mathew H. Masterson.
Second Lieut. William W. Haines.
Second Lieut. James S. Whicher.
Second Lieut. John L. Miles, Rising Sun.
Second Lieut. George B. Sink, Rising Sun.
First Sergt. William W. Haines.
Q. M.-Sergt. John L. Miles.
Sergt. Abner McFarland.
Sergt. George B. Sink.
Sergt. William P. Harris.
Corp. James Buchanan.
PRIVATES.
Barricklow, George Knollman, Henry Ammen, Wm. P
Corp. DeWitt C. Bonnell.
Corp. Jesse H. Jones.
Corp. Samuel Mullen.
Bugler Benjamin F. Pepper.
Artificer James M. Long.
Barricklow, Fred McArthur, Jerome Arford, James R
Buchanan, Perry Mitcliell, John
Carlisle, Wm. H. Peaslee, Abraham
Carpenter, John S. Reed, James S.
Downey, Rufus K. Rupker, Frederick Clore, James
Eastman, Wm. E. Scott, Samuel E. Conner, Robert C
Fowler. Henry Scoggin, Elisha Craft, George A.
Hall, Peter Summers, Henry Corson, Eli
Hasbough, L. Vehouse, Frederick Dugal, Samuel
Hunt, Martin V. Volkman, Henry Gillis, William H.
Hewitt, William
Mapes, George
Burgas, Levi H. Pate, Smith
Campbell, Sam. M. Ricketts, Robert
Campbell, Hudson Rabb, George J.
Steele, William A.
Spore, Isaac
Spore, George W.
Todd, Thomas E.
Todd, James.
MILITARY HISTORY. 215
Fifty-five men are claimed to have served from the county in the
above battery.
On the 5th of September the battery left Indianapolis by rail for St.
Louis, where it went into camp until the 25th of September, when it
embarked on a steamer and proceeded up the Missouri River to Jefferson
City. Disembarking at that place, it encamped in the vicinity until the
4th of October, and then marched with part of Gen. Hunter's division to
Tipton. Remaining there until the 17th, it moved southward, passing
near Versailles and through Warsaw to Mount View, and thence to Spring-
field, Mo.
From Springfield it moved into Kansas, going into quarters at Fort
Leavenworth daring the winter, and in the spring of 1862 moving to
Fort Scott. On the 28d of May, the battery marched from Fort Scott
to lola, Kas., where it remained in camp until the 1st of June, and then
marched to Baxter's Springs, on Spring River, in the Indian Territory.
On the 5th, with four pieces of the battery, a detachment marched with
an expedition from Baxter's Springs to Round Grove, on Cow Skin Prai-
rie, in Cherokee Nation, where, coming upon the enemy's force, under
Col. Coffee, a fight ensued about dark on the 5th. The enemy was
routed, after the firing of six rounds of shot and shell, and a large
amount of live stock, equipage and munitions of war captured. On the
28th of June, the battery marched from Baxter's Springs with Col. Sol-
omon's brigade, upon an expedition against the rebel Indians. Moving
southward into the Cherokee Nation, the enemy under Gen. Rains was
encountered at Round Grove, and before our forces could attack them,
the enemy fled. Returning to Fort Scott, the battery took part in sev-
eral expeditions sent out from that place. It engaged the enemy at Lone
Jack, Mo., on the 9th of September, and at Newtonia, Mo., October 10.
Moving into Arkansas, it participated in engagements with the ene-
my at Fort Wayne, on the 28th of October; at Cane Hill, on the 27th of
November; at Prairie Grove, on the 7th to 9th of December, and at Van
Buren on the 29th of December. During the following spring the bat-
tery was stationed at Springfield, Mo., from whence, in July, 1863, the
greater portion was detached and sent to the field in Arkansas and
Indian Territory. On the 28th of August this detachment took part in
the battle at Perryville, in the Choctaw Nation, and on the 1st of Sep-
tember it was engaged in the fight at Cotton Gap, Ark. The battery
again united, participated in the battle of Buffalo Mountain, on the 25th
of October, ^fter which it moved to Waldron and Fort Smith, Ark. In
January, 1864, a small portion of men re-enlisted as veteran volunteers.
The battery continued to operate in western Arkansas during the winter,
spring and summer of 1864. On the 11th and 12th of April it engaged
■216 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUxNTIES.
the enemy at Prairie de Ann, Ark, and on the 13th at Moscow, Ark. On
the 18th of the same month it participated in the battle of Poisoned
Spring, Ark., in which it lost two guns, and on the 28th it fought the
enemy at Mark's Mills, Ark. On the 29th and 30th of April, it again
engaged the enemy at Jenkins' Ferry on Saline River, after which it
moved to Fort Smith. At this place on the 29fch, 30th and 31st of July,
it took part in the battles fought in defense of the fort, and assisted in
defeating the enemy. In September it returned to Indianapolis, where
the non-veterans were mustered out of service, and the organization
broken up.
The battery was reorganized at Indianapolis, on the 18th of Octo-
ber, 1864, with James S. Whicher (first lieutenant of the old organiza-
tion) as captain. In December it proceeded to Nashville, Tenn., where
it remained until the latter part of June, 1865. While there it took
part in the battle at Nashville on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864.
Returning to Indianapolis, with 113 men for muster out, it was present
at a reception given to the returned soldiers in the capitol grounds on
the 30th of June, at which speeches were made by Lieut. -Gov. Baker,
Gen. Hovey and others. On the 3d of July, 1865, the battery was mus-
tered out, and the officers and men finally discharged. During the term
of service of the two organizations, the Second Battery marched 11,500
miles and lost one officer and twenty seven men killed.
Company B, Fourth Cavalry (Seventy- seventh Indiana Volunteers)
had for its successive commissioned officers as follows:
Capt. .John A. Platter. Second Lieut. William T. Pepper.
Capt.William T. Pepper (of Rising Sun). Second Lieut. .John H. Thompson.
Capt. John H. Thompson. Second Lieut. William H. H. Isgri^a;g.
First Lieut. William H. Bracken.
The enlisted men from Ohio County as nearly as can be obtained
(the place of residence and the company not given in the adjutant-gen-
eral's report) were:
Williams, Oliver H. Clark, Joseph M. Harryman, Samuel Shoup, George
Barker, Philip B. French, George W. Jameison, Robert A. Smith, George W.
Hall, D. B. Fox, Frank Lambdin,WilliamT. Smith, William F.
Newman, George W. Harris, James Myers, James Whitlock, John T.
Scoggin, Elijah Harris, Charles M. Miles, James Youge, William
Barman, Marmaduke Hoover, Robert McAlister, Edward
Bedgood, Alfred Hayman, GeorgeW. Spore, Isaac
RECRUITS :
Bowman, Isaac Lemon. George W. Parker, Oscar Spore, Samuel
Jackson, Albion Neal, Jacob Richmond, Eli S. St. Clair, Henry.
The Seventy-seventh Regiment was organized at Indianapolis on the
22d of August, 1862, with Isaac P. Gray as colonel. On the comple-
MILITARY HISTORY. 217
tion of its organization the aspect of affairs in Kentucky was so threat-
ening that the regiment was divided, four companies being sent under
command of Maj. John A. Platter to Henderson, Ky., and the remain-
ing companies to Louisville, from whence they were ordered into the in-
terior, where they were joined by Col. Gray.
The battalion under command of Maj. Platter had a skirmish with
the enemy at Madisonville, Ky., on the 26th of August, and again at
Mount Washington, on the 1st of October, in which a number were
killed and wounded. On the 5th of October it engaged the rebels at
Madisonville, suffering some loss. In the spring of 1863 this battalion
joined the other companies, and after this the regiment served together,
with the exception of Company C, which became the escort for Gen. A.
J. Smith, and followed the fortunes of that officer's command.
During the invasion of Bragg,'a portion of the battalion under the
command of Col. Gray, went into camp for a brief period near Madi-
son, Ind. , and moved from thence to Vevay, near which place it crossed
the Ohio River and moved, on a tour of duty, through Owen, Henry and
adjoining Counties, Kentucky, reaching Frankfort about the 24th of Oc-
tober. Soon after the companies of this battalion were stationed at Gal-
latin, from whence they moved after John H. Morgan's forces toward Green
River. On the 25th of December the battalion fought Morgan near
Mumfordsville and defeated him, suffering a slight loss. Moving into
Tennessee in January, 1863, it reached Murfreesboro in February, in
which vicinity it operated for some months, fighting the enemy at Ruther-
ford's Creek, on the 10th of March. On the 28th of March it was act-
ively engaged in feeling the enemy near Murfreesboro. At this time
the battalion was commanded by Col. L. S. Shuler. The regiment, now
united, moved with Rosecrans in the campaign toward Tullahoma and
Chattanooga, participating in the battle of Chickamauga on the 19th
and 20th of September, and again engaging the enemy on the 23d of
September. Crossing the Tennessee, it fought the rebels at Fay ettevi lie,
Tenn., on the 1st of November, losing a few of its members.
The regiment marched into east Tennessee early in December, where
it remained during the winter of 1863-64. During this campaign it
held the advanced position in all the cavalry movements, and was con-
spicuously engaged in the battles of Mossy Creek, Talbott's and Dund
ridge, for which it was highly complimented in the reports of brigade
and division commanders. On the 27th of January, 1864, a severe fight
occurred at Fair Garden between the division to which it was attached
and two rebel divisions, the latter having been driven during the day
eight miles. Capt. Rosecrans, with the second battalion of the Fourth
Cavalry, dismounted as skirmishers, charged with the Second Indiana
218 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
and First Wisconsin Cavalry (also dismounted) on the enemy's skirmish-
ers. Maj. Purdy, with the first battalion supported by Lilly's Eighteenth
Indiana Battery, and the remaining four companies of the Fourth Cav-
alry, were ordered to a "sabre charge" on a rebel battery. This charge
was led by Lieut. -Col. Leslie, and resulted in the capture of the battery,
one battle flag and more prisoners than the charging party had men
engaged. The enemy were completely routed, and fled in disorder to
the mountains. Lieut. -Col. Leslie fell while gallantly leading his men
on to victory, pierced through the breast with a rebel bullet. The other
losses to the regiment were but few.
In March the regiment arrived at Cleveland, Tenn., and in May
moved with the cavalry of Sherman's army in ' the campaign against
Atlanta. On the 9th of May, it fought the enemy at Varnell's Station,
Ga. , and on the 2d of June it had a skirmish near Burnt Chiirch. It
next moved on the McCook raid, participating in the tight at Newnan on
the 31st of July, and in all the movements of that expedition.
After the capture of Atlanta it marched into Tennessee, and engaged
the enemy at Columbia, Tenn., in Octobei*. In November it was sta-
tioned near Louisville, serving with the Second Brigade of the First
Cavalry Division of the Cavalry Corps of the Military Division of the
Mississippi. In January, 1865, it was in the vicinity of Nashville, and
in the following month at Waterloo, Ala. Moving into Alabama with
Gen. Wilson's forces, it participated in the active campaign in that State
and Georgia, engaging in the battles of Plantersviile and Selma. Leav-
ing Macon, Ga., in May, it reached Nashville and went into the Provis-
ional Cavalry Camp at Edgefield, where it remained until mustered out
of service on the 29th of June, 1865. After its muster out the regiment
remained at Nashville a few days until it was finally discharged and paid,
when the organization was broken up, and the officers and men returned
to their respective homes without coming to the State capital in a body.
Company C was detailed to serve as escort to Gen. A. J. Smith, and
engaged in all the operations of the command of that ofiicer, including
the campaign and siege of Vicksburg and the Red River expedition. Dur-
ing the year 1864 it returned to the regiment, aud served with it until its
final discharge.
In addition to the above-named companies, Ohio County was repre-
sented in various other organizations in both the army and navy to the
number of twenty-five men, making a grand total of 382 enlistments in
the service from Ohio County. The organizations to which the men
belonged participated in eighty- four engagements, while the loss of life
from wounds and disease exceeded 100. The county sustained an hon-
orable part, and claims a full share of the glory on the records of the reg-
iments in which its men fought in the war of the Rebellion.
MILITARY HISTORY. 219
THE MOKGAN RAID.
The following account of Morgan's Raid is from the Centennial
address of George W. Morse, delivered at Rising Sun, July 4, 1878:
"July 7, 1863, Gen. John H. Morgan, of the Confederate army, with
a mounted force of 3,000 or 4,000 men, and six pieces of artillery, captured
two steamers, the "J. T. McCoombs" and "Alice Dean," at Brandy wine,
Ky. Information was sent to Corydon, and Capt. G. W. Lyon, of the
Indiana Legion, with one gun and thirty men arrived at Mauckport, the
night of the 8th, when Col. Timberlake took command, having 100 men
of the legion additional. He proceeded to a point opposite Branden-
burg, and placed the gun in position by 7 o'clock in the morning.
As soon as the fog lifted Capt. Lyon sent a shot through the "McCombs",
and several at the rebels who retreated from her. But Morgan's guns
were soon returning the tire, killing two men. The forces of the legion
fell back, and two regiments of rebel soldiers crossed, formed under the
bank, advanced and charged, taking the gun and several prisoners. Col.
Timberlake fell back toward Corydon, where all the forces available at
so short a notice had taken post; these were under the command of Col.
Lewis Jordan, of the Sixth Legion, and numbered about 400 men. In
the meantime Morgan crossed his forces, and on the morning of the 9th,
advanced upon Col. Jordan's, which fell back to within one mile of
Corydon. Here the tight was maintained for half an hour. When his
little band was flanked, and in danger of total destruction, he surren-
dered, loss three men killed, and one fatally and one badly wounded.
Morgan's loss was eight killed, and thirty-three badly wounded. The
prisoners were robbed and then paroled.
" We will not stop to describe the progress of Morgan's forces further,
but simply relate the incidents connected with Col. Williams' command,
composed in part of three companies of the Eleventh Regiment, Fourth
Brigade of the Indiana Legion.
"On the 8th of September, Brig.-Gen. A. C. Downey received orders
from Gov. Morton to send as many companies of the legion as possible
to Seymour, as Morgan had entered Indiana. Col. H. T. Williams
ordered Capt. J. C. Wells, Jackson Barricklow and John R. Cole, to be
ready to proceed the next morning. They did so, going by wagon to
Aurora, and thence by rail to Seymour, where they arrived on the even-
ing of the 9th. They numbered about 185 men, all told. On the next
day (July 10) Col. Williams received orders to proceed with all haste
to Madison. The cars were soon got ready and the command was con-
veyed back to North Vernon, where information was soon received that
Morgan's forces were approaching South Vernon. Col. Burkam, with
several companies of the legion from Dearborn County, remained while
220 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Col. Williams, with the companies from Ohio County, and a battery of
two six- pound guns and three rounds of ammunition marched to South
Vernon. Some difference of opinion on the management of the defense
seems to have led to this result; the two colonels named, being the high-
est officers present, adopted separate modes of action. The command
was halted in a grove of small trees about one- quarter of a mile from
North Vernon, the men stacking arms and falling out of line. In a few
minutes a scout came riding swiftly from the direction of the enemy,
and told the officers:
" 'Moro-an is coming, is only about three-quarters of a mile east of
town.'
" 'Can yoa tell how many men he has.^' asked the colonel.
" 'As near as 1 can guess about 6,000," replied the scout.
" 'I don't care a d — n if there are 60,000, do you 'f' said Oapt. W.,
turning to his orderly.
" 'Well, no,' replied the latter, 'only it would take longer to kill
60,000 than it would 6,000.'
" 'The march was resumed, and in about half an hour, on a bluff
high bank, the crest of a hill rising suddenly from the margin of the
Muscatatac River, the company of Capt. Wells stacked arms and fell out
of line, hard by a stone church or schoolhouse. In a few minutes a
rapid discharge of musketry was heard, back on the road they had come,
the line was reformed, the firing ceased, the men standing in momentary
expectation of an attack. They afterward learned that the tiring they
had heard was the result of an engagement between a small company of
movinted citizens and a detachment of Morgan's men sent to destroy the
telegraph wires, depots, etc., which was in part prevented.
"Across the Muscatatac, on the crest of a densely wooded hill, not more
than 4,000 yards from the schoolhouse mentioned, was a battery of four
pieces Morgan had just planted; it was entirely concealed by the thick
undergrowth. Capt. Barricklow's company was under the bluff, a little
further up the creek, and Capt. Cole's lying on the railroad near the
bridge which spans the creek. Soon after a man with a white flag was
seen coming across the creek toward the main road leading into the
town. He was met and escorted to the colonel commanding (H. T.
Williams), of whom he demanded in the name of Gen. Morgan, an un-
conditional surrender of the town and the forces under his command.
Col. Williams' reply was: 'No, you can't take my men, nor the town,
without a hard fight.' The bearer of the flag returned to Morgan with
that answer. Soon after another flag was conducted to Col. Williams,
who ordered its carrier under arrest, he being found within the lines
without proper escort. Col. Williams immediately sent over to North
MILITARY HISTORY. ♦ 221
Vernon for aid, in the hope that re- enforcements had arrived. The mes-
senger met Gen. Love, who had arrived with 1,000 men, who were then
disembarking from the cars. On arriving at the front, Gen. Love
ordered the flag set at liberty, at the same time sending the colonel to
Morgan asking ' two hours time to remove women and children.' In
reply to this demand Col. Williams was given fifteen minutes to return
and thirty minutes additional to remove the women and children when
the battle Avill commence. Capt. Wells' company was placed on the
railroad track, the high embankment of which was a good breast- work,
and as night settled over the scene a solemn silence came with it.
"All of Col. Williams' men and Col. Burkams', they having come
from North Vernon, now lay along the railroad track, and as the time
approached for the struggle to begin, it would be idle to say there was
no anxiety, no apprehension. Suddenly, on the hill where the masked
battery had been planted by Morgan, there were two explosions heard,
following each other so rapidly they nearly blended in one — a shell had
been tired from a cannon; this was supposed to be the signal to begin
the battle. Soon the regular tread of a column of infantry was heard
(for it was too dark to see), tramp — tramp— it passed, and word was
brought that it was a Michigan regiment — 800 strong.
"The sky had been getting red, and now began to cast back to the
earth the glare of the many tires in the camp of the enemy. It should
have been stated that there was a mistake with one of the Dearborn
County companies, at about the time the attack was expected. Some of
the inhabitants had collected the cattle and horses in the town and drove
them furiously to the ford of the Muscatatae, intending to drive them
across and save them. The company stationed at this ford imagined it
was the onset of the enemy, and in the darkness and confusion of this
night attack, went over the bank, falling a distance of fifteen or twenty
feet, badly injuring a number of them. The night wore away without
any further alarms, save the explosion of a caisson on the hill mentioned
before; morning came— forty pieces of artillery were then ready to
belch death and destruction, on many regiments of men eager for the
fray — but Morgan— where was he? In the foremost ranks of his flying
columns, miles eastward, near Versailles — they hardly knew of his de-
parture— he could not delay to call in the pickets, the lines were tight-
ening around him — a great many horses were also taken. The next
day the advance was made on foot to Sunman Station, where it was
found that Morgan had already crossed the line into Ohio, The regi-
ment proceeded to Lawrenceburgh, and thence home to Ohio County.
"We close the account of the raid by 7naking one extract from Gen.
Love's report to Gov. Morton, dated July 20, 1863. He says: ' It is
222 ' HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
due to Col. Williams and his gallant regiment from Ohio County to say,
with only 200 men of his regiment, and the armed citizens of Jennings
County he refused to surrender Vernon to Morgan's force of 4,500 with
five pieces of artillery. * * * The failure to take Vernon was the
first check he had received since entering our State.' "
In the report of W. H. H. Terrell, adjutant-general of Indiana, of
the Morgan raid in the State in July, 1863, it is stated that " at 5 o'clock
July 13, Morgan moved eastwardly from his bivouac a few miles from
Sunman's, in the direction of the Ohio line, crossing the railroad at
three stations— Harmon's, Van Weddon's and Weisburg. The bridges
and track at all three places were destroyed, and a water tank at Van
Weddon's burned. Passing rapidly on by Hubbell's Corner, New Alsace,
Dover and Logan, the rebel advance reached Harrison, Ohio, a little
after 12 o'clock noon."
Concerning the action and behavior of the raiders as they passed
through Harrison, says the author of the History of Hamilton County,
Ohio, "about 1 o'clock in the afternoon of the 13th (July), the advance
of the rebel command was seen streaming down the hillsides on the west
side of the valley, and the alarm was at once given in the streets of
Harrison. Citizens hastened at once to secrete valuables and run off
their horses, but in a very few moments the enemy was swarming all
over the town. The raiders generally behaved pretty well, offering few
insults to the people and maltreating no woman or other person. They
secured what horses they could, thronged the stores, taking whatever
they fancied. One gentleman, who kept a drug store, was despoiled of
nothing but soap and perfumery. Similar incidents were related of
other shops in the village, and from one and another a large amount of
goods in the aggregate was taken, but there was no robbery from house
to house or from the person; and after-a few hours' stay, having refreshed
themselves and their horses and gained all desired information, the head
of the column began to tile out of the village in the direction of Cincin-
nati on the Harrison turnpike. ' '
The accident that occurred at Lawrenceburgh during the " raid" was
thus described by the late adjutant-general above referred to:
"The resistance and pursuit of the rebels was as nearly bloodless as
any hostile movement on so large a scale could be, but it was destined to
cause more bloodshed after its departure than it did by its presence.
On the evening of the 13th, Col. Gavin, in command at Lawrenceburgh,
havino- been informed that Morgan had taken Harrison and had turned
back and was advancing upon Lawrenceburgh, took prompt measures to
meet him. He sent out his own regiment, the One Hundred and Fourth,
half a mile beyond Hardintown, on the turnpike, where a strong barricade
* MILITARY HISTORY. 223
was constructed, and a line of battle was formed along the towpath of
the canal so as to use the canal bank as a defense. Col. Shryock's reg-
iment, the One Hundred and Fifth, was ordered to take position half a
mile in the rear. About 9 o'clock at night, while marching to the
assigned position through a very short curve in the road at Hardintown,
the rear of the column seeing the head indistinctly in the darkness, and
unaware of the curve which threw the men in front on a line parallel
with those in the rear, mistook it for a portion of the expected enemy's
force, and a shot accidentally fired at the moment made the impression so
strong, that they fired into thg advance. The advance, of course, mis-
took the fire for that of the enemy and returned it. Col. Shryock
instantly rode down the line to stop the firing, telling the men that they
were killing their comrades, but though promptly obeyed he was too late
to prevent a serious catastrophe. Five men were killed, one mortally
and eighteen more or less wounded, the following is a list of the casual-
ties caused by this sad mistake:
Killed. — Sergeant, John Gordon; privates, Oliver P. Jones, William
Faulkner, Ferdinand Hefner and John Porter.
Wounded. — Captains, A. K. Branham and William Nicholson;
lieutenants, William E. Hart (mortally), Samuel Bewsey and Joel New-
man; sergeants, Richard M. Baker, John Pyle and James E. Bates;
privates, Samuel E. Duncan, Edmund Bloomfield, Martin Hoover, Will-
iam Flint, David S. Gooding, W. G. Johnson, D. W. Parish, R. T.
Raines, Jabez Wilson, Allen R. Bates and Hart."
DRAFTS, BOUNTIES, ETC.
The war called for so large a proportion of the entire male popula-
tion that the quota was not in all cases filled without difiiculty. Drafts
and the offer of large bounties to volunteers were found necessary, hence
many of the recruits on being mustered into service received considera-
ble bounty.
The draft assignment of October 6, 1862, to Dearborn County was as
follows: Harrison Township, 22; Logan Township, 22; Kelso Township,
44; Jackson Township, 14; Cesar Creek Township, 6.
The men who filled the quota of Dearborn County were, with the
exception of an inconsiderable fraction, volunteers. The county, with a
total militia enrollment, in September, 1862, of 3,252 had 1,753 volun-
teers, 1,528 of whom were then in the field, requiring the following
month the draft only of 108 men.
Ohio County, with a total militia enrollment, in September, 1862, of
796 had 387 volunteers, 299 of whom were in the field, requiring the
224
HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
following month the draft of only 15 men, the draft assignment being
to Cass Township.
COUNTY EXPENDITURES.
Exhibit showing the amounts expended for local bounties, for relief
of soldiers' families, and for miscellaneous military purposes by the
county and townships during the war:
DEARBORN COUNTY.
County, City or Township.
Dearborn County
Harrison Township
Logan Township
Miller Township
Lawrenceburgh Township.
Center Township
Hogan Township
Manchester Township
York Township
Kelso Township
Jackson Township
Sparta Township
Cesar Creek Township . . . .
Clay Township
Washington Township
Lawrenceburgh City
Aurora Citj^
Dearborn County total.
Grand total
Bounty.
$201,
11,
9,
3,
10,
21
623 00
750 00
350 00
100 00
000 00
833 00
500 00
090 00
920 00
950 00
336 10
230 00
600 00
,600 00
,423 00
$38,283 21
400 00
150 00
1,150 00
15.000 00
17,250 00
1,078 00
3,500 00
300 00
325 00
1,126 85
2,732 00
125 00
425 00
136 50
54 86
11,300 00
$295,305 10 $93,335 45
Miscellaneous.
$396,016 17
375 62
7,000 00
$7,375 62
OHIO COUNTY.
County, City or Township.
Bounty.
Relief
Miscellaneous.
Alii A Pnnntv
$37,000 00
11,800 00
4,800 00
9,375 00
5,600 00
$4,769 78
$424 95
Pace Tnwzn'shin
54 95
333 64
75 00
Ohio County total
$68,575 00 1 $5,158 37
$499 95
S^74.2,33 32
AID SOCIETIES, DONATIONS, ETC.
Various aid societies were organized throughout the counties during
the war, and through the efforts of the ladies, many delicacies and com-
forts were sent to the field. The Aurora Soldiers' Aid Society as a branch of
the Cincinnati Sanitary Commission was organized in March, 1862. The
Moore's Hill Soldiers' Aid Society was organized by the ladies soon after
MILITARY HISTORY. 225
the intelligence of the battle of Fort Donelson, was received, in the spring
of 1862. In April, 1862, the ladies on Ebenezer Ridge, and on Wilson
Creek and vicinity, met and organized a Ladies' Sanitary Association
The Soldiers' Relief Society of Lawrenceburgh Township, was organized
December 22, 1864 Similar societies were formed elsewhere, and all did a
noble work. The report of the Soldiers' Aid Society of Lawrenceburgh
Township made in July, 1865, showed receipts of $556.48.
CLOSING Scenes.
The following extract from the Aurora Commercial oi April 13, 1865,
will give the reader an idea of the manner in which the news of the sur-
render of Gen. Lee and his army was received by the people of Aurora:
"Last Monday was a day of wild excitement in this city. The news of
Lee's surrender, following so quickly upon the capture of Richmond, was
almost too much of a good thing, and produced demonstrations on the
part of some of our patriotic citizens, that would under other circum-
stances, be disproportionate to their years. The cannons were brought
out, the bells were rung, houses illuminated, and the town poured its
population into the streets, to witness the display and exchange cono-rat-
ulations. Songs, speeches, and shouts of joy and praise, were indulged
in until a late hour, when all retired to their homes to dream of the peace
and prosperity in store for our beloved country."
The Commercial of April 20, 1865, referring to the assassination of
President Abraham Lincoln, remarked: " The news of the assassination
of President Lincoln has produced a deep impression in this community;
every person seems to feel as if he had met with a severe and irreparable
loss. Last Sabbath|was one of the most mournful and solemn days we
have ever passed in Aurora. Wherever we would turn, our eyes would
rest on troubled countenances, which bore the impress of a deep and
abiding affliction. Men conversed with each other in undertones, and
even the spirits of the children, too young to know sorrow, seemed to be
oppi'essed with the universal sadness. We hope we may never see such
another day.
"Yesterday nearly our whole population attended the public exercises
at the Methodist and Lutheran Churches, to pay their last sad tribute to
the memory of our late Pi'esident. While eloquent speakers discoursed
of the virtues of the deceased, and of the loss the country has sustained
in his death, the sobs of women, and the silent tears trickling down the
cheeks of brave men, told how heavily the blow had fallen upon our
patriotic people. God grant that they may never again suffer such an
affliction."
226 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
CHAPTER XIV.
LIST. OF OFFICERS.
Territorial Judges of Dearborn County— Circuit Judges of Dear-
born County— Common Pleas Judges of Dearborn County— Asso
ciATE Judges of Dearborn County— Probate Judges of Dearborn
County— Members of the Territorial Legislature— Members
OF Constitutional Conventions— Members of the State Legisla-
ture from Dearborn County— Board of Magistrates and County
Commissioners of Dearborn County— Treasurers of Dearborn
County — Clerks of Dearborn County— Sheriffs of Dearborn
County— Auditors of Dearborn County— United States Officers
—Circuit Judges of Ohio County— Commion Pleas Judges of Ohio
County — Associate Judges of Ohio County* — Sheriffs of Ohio
County— Recorders of Ohio County— Clerks of Ohio County-
Auditors OF Ohio County— Treasurers of Ohio County— County
Commissioners of Ohio County— Members of the General Assem-
bly FROM Ohio and Switzerland Counties.
territorial judges of dearborn county.
BENJAMIN CHAMBERS, March 7, 1803 to December 14, 1810.
Jabez Percival, March 8, 1803 to January 6, 1814
Barnet Hulick, March 7, 1803 to December 14, 1809.
John Brownson, March 7, 1803 to January 6, 1814.
Jeremiah Hunt, March 7, 1803.
Richard Stevens, March 7, 1803.
William Major, March 7, 1803 to January 6, 1814.
James McCarty, March 7, 1803.
Isaac Dunn, March 17, 1812 to February 14, 1817.
Elijah Sparks, January 16, 1814 (died in May 1815).
James Noble, appointed to fill the vacancy and served until 1816.
Jesse L. Holman was also a Territorial judge at the time of the ad-
mission of Indiana into the Union.
circuit judges of dearborn county.
John Test, of Franklin County, 1818-19.
John Watts, of Dearborn County, 1819-20.
Miles C. Eggleston, of Jefferson County, 1820-45.
Courtland Cushing, of Jefferson County, 1845-47.
LIST OF OFFICERS. 227
George H. Diinn, of Dearborn County, 1847-50.
William M. McCarty, 1850-53.
Keuben D. Logan, 1853-65.
Jeremiah M. Wilson, of Fayette County, 1865-69.
Robert N. Lamb, 1869-71.
Henry C. Hanna, 1871-73.
Omar F. Roberts, of Dearborn County, 1873-79.
Noah S. Givan, of Dearborn County, 1879-85.
W. H. Bainbridge, of Dearborn County, 1885.
COMMON PLEAS JUDGES OF DEAEBOEN COUNTY.
William S. Holman, of Dearborn County, 1853-56.
Charles N. Shook, 1856-61.
Francis Adkinson, 1861-65,
Robert N. Lamb, 1865-69.
Scott Carter, 1869-72.
ASSOCIATE JUDGES OF DEARBORN COUNTY.
Solomon Manwarring, 1816-30.
John Livingston.
Isaac Dunn, 1830-38.
JohnM'Pike, 1830-35.
Samuel H. Dowden, 1835-38.
John Livingston, 1838-45.
Alfred J. Cotton, 1838-45.
David Conger, 1845-51.
John A. Emrie, 1845-51.
PROBATE JUDGES OF DEARBORN COUNTY.
George H. Dunn, 1829-31.
John Livingston, 1831-37.
John M'Pike, 1837.
John Palmer, 1837-43.
Theodore Gazlay, 1843.
William S. Holman, 1843-47.
Alfred J. Cotton, 1847-52.
MEMBERS OF THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.
The first Territorial Legislature met at Vincennes July 29, 1805.
Benjamin Chambers, of Dearborn County, was president of the Legisla-
tive Council, and Jesse B. Thomas, of the same county, speaker of the
House of Representatives.
228 HISTOItY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
The Second Territorial Legislature met September 26, 1808. Jesse
B. Thomas, of Dearborn County, was again speaker of the House.
The Third Territorial Legislature met November 10, 1810.
The Fourth Territorial Legislature met February 1, 1813, James
Dill, of Dearborn County, was speaker of the House at the first session,
and Isaac Dunn, of the same county, was speaker during the last seven
days of the second session.
The fifth and last Territorial Legislature of Indiana met at Corydon,
August 14, 1814 Jesse L. Holman, of Dearborn, was elected president
of the Legislative Council.
MEMBERS or CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS.
Convention of 1816: James Dill, Solomon Manwarring and Ezra
Ferris.
Convention of 1851: William S. Holman, John D. Johnson and
Johnson Watts,
MEMBERS OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE, DEARBORN COUNTY,
SENATORS.
1816-18.— Ezra Ferris, at Corydon.
1821-22,— John Grey, at Corydon.
1825-30. — John Watts, at Indianapolis.
1831-32,— James T. Pollock.
1833.— D. V. CuUey,
1834-35,— Daniel Plummer.
1838-43.— Johnson Watts.
1844-45.— George P. Buell.
1849-51. — James H. Lane, president of the Senate,
1846-51,— James P. Milliken.
1852-57.— Richard D. Slater.
1859-61.— Cornelius O'Brien,
1863-65.— James W. Gaff.
1867-69. -Elijah Huffman.
1871-73.— Richard Gregg.
1875.— Noah S. Givan.
REPRESENTATIVES .
1816. — Amos Lane, Erasmus Powell.
1817. — Amos Lane.
1818, — Erasmus Powell, John Watts,
1820, — Ezra Ferris, Erasmus Powell.
1822, — Pinkney James, Horace Bassett, Ezekiel Jackson,
1823. — Samuel Jelley, Benjamin J. Blythe, David Bowers.
LIST OF OFFICERS. 229
1825. — Abel C. Pepper, Horace Bassett, Ezekiel Jackson.
1825. — Ezekiel Jackson, Abel C. Pepper, Thomas Guion.
1826. — Ezra Ferris, Ezekiel Jackson, Horace Bassett.
1827. — Horace Bassett, Ezekiel Jackson, Joel Decoursey, James T.
Pollock.
1828. — Horace Bassett, James T. Pollock, Arthur St. Clair, George
H. Dunn.
1829-30.— Horace Bassett, James T. Pollock, Thomas Guion, Walter
Armstrong.
1830. — James T. Pollock, Walter Armstrong, Ezra Ferris, Samuel H.
Dowden.
1831.— David V. Culley, William Flake, Warren Tebbs.
1832.— George H. Dunn, David V. Culley, Oliver Heustis.
1833. — George H. Dunn, Thomas Guion, David Guard.
1834. — Nelson H. Torbett, James Walker, Thomas Howard.
1835. — Henry W^alker, Thomas Howard, Milton Gregg.
1836. — David Guard, Pinkney James, John P. Dunn, Abel C. Pepper.
1837. — George Arnold, Abram Ferris, Enoch W. Jackson, Alexander
E. Glenn.
1838-39. — George Arnold, Jacob W. Eggleston, William Conaway,
Ebenezer Dumont.
1839-40. — Amos Lane, William Lanius, William Conaway, William
Perry.
1840-41.— Abij ah North, John B. Clark, Isaac Dunn, William R. Cole.
1841. — Ethan A. Brown, James P. Milliken, James Rand.
1842-43. — Ethan A. Brown, John Lewis, James P. Milliken.
1843-44. — Pinkney James, David Macy.
1844. — Oliver Huestis, John Lewis, William Lanius.
1845-46. — George Cornelius, Richard D. Slater.
1846-47.— A. G. Tebbs, John D. Johnson.
1847.— George W. Lane, Richard D. Slater.
1848. — John D. Johnson, Alvin J. Alden, George M. Lozier.
1849-50. — Daniel Conaway, Joseph A. Watkins.
1850. — Ebenezer Dumont (speaker of the House), John B. Clark,
1850. — (Special session) Oliver B. Torbett, William S. Holman.
1853. — Oliver B. Torbett (speaker of the House), Noah C. Durham,
1855. — Alvin J. Alden, John Crozier.
1857. — John Lewis, George W. Lane.
1858.— Noah C. Durham, Warren Tebbs.
1859.— Warren Tebbs, Noah C. Durham.
1861. — Omer F. Roberts, Charles Lods.
1863. — Omer F, Roberts, Alfred Brogan.
230 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
1865. — John C. Stenger, Richard Gregg.
1867.— Edward H. Green, Warren Tebbs, Jr.
1869-71. — Warren Tebbs, Jr.
1872-73.— (Special) Noah S. Givan.
1875. — Columbus Johnston.
BOARD OF MAGISTRATES AND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF DEARBORN COUNTY.
From 1826 to 1831 the business of the county was controlled by a
board of magistrates from the several townships, one of whom was
elected president. The old records having been burnt, the first meeting
of which any record exists was held in 1826 with James Dill, clerk. The
following names appear.
1826. — Mark McCracken, president; John Porter, James Lewis, Will-
iam Brundye and Laban Bramble.
1827.— Mark McCracken, Cornelius S. Falkner and Job A. Beach.
1828. — Philip Eastman, James Murry, Delia Elder, Isaac Colwell,
John Godley, James W. Hunter, Martin Stewart and William Flake.
1829. — David Bowers, John Glass and Israel W. Bonham.
1830. — Joseph Wood, Ulysses Cook, John Columbia and John Neal.
The law was changed in 1831 and the county was divided into three
districts, and one man was elected from each district to compose a board
of county commissioners. The following persons have been elected and
served on this board.
1831. — District No. 1, Joseph Wood, elected for one year; District
No. 2, Mark McCracken, elected for twQ years; District No. 3, George
Arnold, elected for three years — all serving from the first Monday in
August, 1831. From this date one county commissioner was elected
annually as follows:
1832.— William Conway.
1833. - Charles Dashiell.
1834— George Arnold.
1835.— John Neal.
1836. — Benjamin Sylvester.
1837. — David Nevitt and William Conway.
1838.— David Walser.
1839.— Aaron B. Henry.
1840.— William S. Ward.
1841.— Charles Dashiell.
1842.— John Columbia.
1843.— William S. Ward.
1844.— David Walser.
1845. — James Grubbs.
LIST OF OFFICERS. 231
1846. —Daniel Taylor.
1847. —Martin Trester.
1848.— Jonathan Hollowell.
1849.— William S. Ward.
1850.— Zera Vinson.
1851. — Jonathan Hollowell.
1852. — John Heinberger.
1853. — Benjamin Biirlingame.
1854.— Mason J. McCloud.
1855.— Asahel Tyrrel.
1856. — Benjamin Burlingame.
1857. — John Anderegg.
1858.— Asahel Tyrrel.
1859.— Francis Buffington.
1860. — John Anderegg.
1861. — Charles Briggs.
1862.— Francis Buffington.
1863. — Charles Briggs.
1864. — John Anderegg.
1865. — Francis Buffington.
1866. — Frederick Sonders.
1867.— Smith Piatt.
1868.— Asahel Tyrrel.
1869. — Frederick Sonders.
3870.— John C. Stenger.
1871.— Asahel Tyrrel.
1872.— Frederick Sonders.
1873. — James Grubbs, Smith Piatt.
1874.— Frederick Slater.
1876.— Michael Hoff, Abraham Briggs.
] 877.— Frederick Slater.
1879.— Abraham Briggs, Michael Hoff.
1880.— Garrett Bosse.
1882. — Charles Lods (by appointment to till vacancy caused by the
death of Hoff ), Henry Bulthaup (by appointment to fill vacancy caused
by the death of Bosse), T. T. Annis, John Buchert — Bulthaup (elected).
1883. — Charles Fisk, John Feist (by appointment to fill vacancy
caused by the death of Buchert.
1885. — Nicholas Vogelgesang.
TREASUKEES OF DEABORN COUNTY.
Daniel Hagerman, died 1829.
Thomas Palmer, 1829-31.
232 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Walter Armstrong, 1831-36.
Robert Moore, 1837-38.
William G. Monroe, 1838-40.
Ebenezer Dumont, 1840-45.
Nelson S. Torbet, 1845-47.
Cornelius O'Brien, 1847-50.
Noble Hamilton, 1850-53.
Strange S. Dunn, 1853-55.
Thomas Johnson, 1855-57.
Francis M. Jackson, 1857-61.
Marcus Levy, 1861-63.
William F. Crocker, 1863-65.
Thomas Kilner, 1865-70.
Francis Lang, 1870-74.
Charles Lods, 1874-78.
William H. Kyle, 1878-80.
Dr. James D. Gatch, 1882.
CLEKKS OF DEARBORN COUNTY.
Samuel C. Vance, March 7, 1803, to September 6, 1813.
James Dill, September 6, 1813 until his death, in 1838, and was
succeeded by Alexander Dill, appointed clerk pro tern.
William V. Cheek, 1839-51.
Cornelius O'Brien, 1851-56.
Samuel L. Jones, 1856-61.
John F. Cheek, 1864-68.
John A. Conwell, 1868-78.
Warren Tebbs, 1878.
RECORDERS OF DEARBORN COUNTY.
James Dill, March 7, 1803 to August 30, 1803.
James Hamilton, August 30, 1803 to February 14, 1817.
■ James Dill, 1817-31.
Thomas Porter, 1831-34.
Asa Smith, 1834.
Thomas Palmer, 1835-55.
Tobias Finkbine, 1855.
John Heinberger, 1855-63.
Alvin J. Alden, 1863-67.
Alfred Brogan, 1867-71.
Francis M. Johnson, 1871-79.
George C. Columbia, 1879-85.
LIST OF OFFICERS. 233
SHERIFFS OF DEARBORN COUNTY.
David Lamphere, August 23, 1803, to November 23, 1804.
James Hamilton, November 23, 1804, to December 30, 1816.
John Hamilton, February 14, 1817, died May, 1818.
William Hamilton, May 29, 1818, to August 18, 1818.
Thomas Longley, August 18, 1818 to August 18, 1822.
John Spencer, August, 1822, to August, 1826.
Thomas Longley, August, 1826, to August, 1828.
John Spencer, 1828-32.
Milton Gregg, 1832.
William Dils, 1832-37.
John Weaver.
Samuel Osgood. "^
Thomas Roberts.
Frank M. Riddle.
John Brumblay.
John Boyd, 1858-60.
Edward A. Conger, 1860-64.
Richard C. Arnold, 1864-68.
Frank R. Dorman, 1868-72.
Lewis Weitzel, 1872-76.
Elijah Christopher, 1876-80.
John C. Sims, 1880-84.
Daniel M. Guard, 1884.
AUDITORS OF DEARBORN COUNTT.
George W. Lane (first auditor), 1841-46.
Reuben Rogers, 1846-55.
Elias T. Crosby, 1855-64.
Richard D. Slater, Sr., 1864-68.
Richard D. Slater, Jr., 1868-75.
Myron Haynes, 1875-79.
Alexander Pattison, 1879-83.
Julius Severin, 1883.
UNITED STATES OFFICERS.
The following named citizens of Dearborn County have held offices
under and by authority of the General Government:
Jesse L. Holman, Judge of the United States Court for the District
of Indiana.
Horace Bassett, clerk of the District Court, Indiana.
Abel C. Pepper, United States marshal for State of Indiana.
Thomas Porter, receiver United States land office, Fort Wayne.
234 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Arthur St. Clair, register United States land office, Indianapolis.
John Spencer, receiver United States land office. Fort Wayne.
Abel C. Pepper, Indian agent.
David V. Culley, register United States land office, Indianapolis.
B. T. W. S. Anderson, United States mail agent.
D. M. Skinner, United States mail agent.
Servetus Tufts, assistant door-keeper United States Congress.
Samuel J. Johnson, assistant door-keeper United States Congress.
E. D. Slater, Sr., assistant door-keeper United States Congress.
Geo. W.Lane, superintendent United States branch mint,Denver, Col.
Benjamin F. Spooner, United States marshal for the State of Indiana,
R. DeLoss Brown, assistant door-keeper United States Congress.
James I. McConnell, assistant door-keeper. United States Congress.
Jason D. Brown, secretary of Wyoming Territory.
Henry W. Blasdal, "governor of Nevada Territory.
STATE OFFICEES.
Jesse L. Holman, judge of the supreme court.
George H. Dunn, treasurer of State.
John P. Dunn, auditor of State.
James H. Lane, lieutenant-governor.
B. DeLoss Brown, librarian.
E. G. Collins, secretary of State.
James DeSano,- librarian.
Ebenezer Dumont, president of the State bank.
CIECUIT JUDGES OF OHIO COUNTY.
Miles C. Eggleston, of Jefferson County, 1844.
Courtland Cushing, of Jefferson County, 1845-50.
Alexander C. Downey, of Ohio County, 1850-58.
Joseph W. Chapman, 1858-64.
John G. Berkshire, of Ripley County, 1864-69.
Robert N. Lamb, 1869-70.
Henry C. Hanna, 1870-73.
Omar F. Roberts, of Dearborn County, 1873-79.
Noah S. Givan, of Dearborn County, 1879-85.
W. H. Bainbridge, of Dearborn County, 1885.
COMMON PLEAS JUDGES OF OHIO COUNTY.
Robert Drummond, 1852-58.
John J. Hayden, of Ohio County, 1858-60.
Francis Adkinson, 1860-64.
Robert N. Lamb, 1864-68.
Scott Carter, 1868-72.
LIST OF OFFICERS. 235
ASSOCIATE JUDGES OF OHIO COUNTY,
Samuel Fulton, 1844-47.
Thomas H. Gilmore, 1844-47.
John Hall, 1847-51.
Martin Stewart, 1847-51.
PROBATE JUDGES OF OHIO COUNTY.
Samuel Jelley, 1844-51.
Thomas W. Pate, 1851-52.
SHERIFFS OF OHIO COUNTY.
William Lanius, 1844, by appointment.
James B. Smith, 1844-46.
William W. Pate, 1846-51.
Thomas H. Gilmore, 1851-55.
John J. Works, 1855-57.
John M. Ginnings, 1857-59.
Thomas H. Gilmore, 1859-61.
Harvey Green, 1861-65.
Moses T. McMurray, 1865-67.
B. F. Miller, 1867-69.
William H. Clark, 1869-73.
John McGuire, 1873-75.
Rufus K. Downey, 1875-77.
David H. Durbin, 1877-79.
John Monroe, 1879-81.
John McGuire, 1881-85.
Thomas A. Bennett, 1885.
RECORDERS OF OHIO COUNTY.
William T. Lambdin, 1844-50.
John R. Ross, 1850-51.
Henry B. Newman, 1851-55.
J. J. Hay den, 1855.
John Downey, 1855.
William Elliott, 1855-63 .
John B. Covington, 1863-71.
Joseph B. Pepper, 1871-75.
John W. Facemire, 1875-79.
George B. Hall, 1879-80.
Wallace P. Hall, 1880-82.
Reuel W. Fugit, 1882.
236 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
CLERKS OF OHIO COUNTY.
James H. Pepper, 1844.
John R. Ross, 1850.
John B. Covington, 1861.
Oliver H. Miller, 1864.
Solomon K. Kittle, 1872.
John H. Jones {ad interim), 1876.
William W. Williams, 1876.
George B. Hall, 1880.
AUDIT0E8 OF OHIO COUNTY.
Samuel F. Covington, 1844-45.
Joseph M. Vance, 1845.
Lot North, 1851.
John D. Bush, 1855.
Oliver H. Miller, 1859.
Solomon K. Kittle, 1863.
Oliver H. Miller, 1871.
Joseph P. Hemphill, 1879.
TREASURERS OF OHIO COUNTY.
John B. Craft, 1844.
James B. Smith, 1855.
Robert W. Jones, 1859.
Hugh S. Espey, 1865.
John T. Whitlock, 1867.
AVilliam H. Clark, 1875.
John C. Miller, 1878.
John W. Facemire, 1883.
Michael McGuire, 1885.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF OHIO COUNTY.
1844. — John Bennett, William H. Powell and Morris Merrill.
1845. — John Bennett, for three years; George Pate, for two years,
and James Hemphill, for one year.
1846. — James M. Shepherd.
1847.— George Pate, re-elected for three years, and Cornelius Miller
succeeded John Bennett, deceased.
1848. — Thomas Summers.
1849.— Allen B. Wilber, Marshall Elliott.
1851. George Pate (died in 1852) and John Hall, appointed to the
LIST OF OFFICERS. 237
1852. — Charles E. Hamilton, James W. Gibbens.
1853.— Benjamin Hall.
1854. — George Buchanan.
1855. — James Johnson, Nathan Vanosdol, Joseph L. Pate.
1857.— Calvin Marble.
1858. — Hiram Barricklow.
1859. — Hugh Anderson.
I860.— Henry Brown.
1861.— William Wooden.
1862.— Hugh Anderson.
1863.— Henry Brown.
1864.— Ezra Kemp.
1865.— Scott Billings.
1866.— William Hemphill.
1867. — Ezra Lampkin.
1868. — James Buchanan, by appointment, to succeed Ezra Lampkin,
removed from the county; then elected. Scott Billings.
1869.— William Hemphill.
1870. — James Buchanan.
1871.— Scott Billings.
1872.— William Hemphill.
1873. — James Buchanan.
1874.— Scott Billings.
1875. ^William Hemphill.
1876.— John Hanna, John W. Cofield.
1877.— Scott Billings.
1878. — Christian Marlman.
1879. — James North, Henry F. Potterbaum..
1881. — James Buchanan, by appointment to succeed Henry F. Potter-
baum, removed from the county. Christian Marlman.
1882.— F. M. Miller, J. F. Schroeder.
1884. — Christian Marlman.
MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLE FROM OHIO AND SWITZERLAND COUNTIES.
The following list contains the names of men who have been honored
with a seat in the General Assembly of Indiana from the senatorial and
legislative districts of which Ohio County has constituted a part since
the organization of the county until 1869 and 1875, respectively;
Senate. — Ohio and Switzerland Counties were made a senatorial dis-
trict in 1845. Since the adoption of the new constitution, the sessions
of the Legislature have been held biennially, the senators being elected
for four years.
238 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
1846-47-48, Martin R. Green; 1849-50-51, John Woods; 1852-53.
William Powell; in the sessions commencing 1855 and 1857, Philander
S. Page; in the sessions commencing 1859 and 1861, Benjamin L. Rob-
inson; in the sessions commencing in 1863 and 1865, Alexander C-
Downey; in the sessions commencing in 1867 and 1879, Flavins J. Bell-
aney.
House. — Since 1845 Ohio and Switzerland Counties have composed a
representative district. 1846, John Tait, Jr.; 1847, Samuel F. Cov-
ington and Charles T. Jones; 1848, Daniel Kelso; 1849, John W.Wright
and John W. Spencer; 1850, Thomas Armstrong; 1851, Samuel Porter
and John W. Spencer (after this session the Legislature met biennially,
and convened in January instead of December, as under the old consti-
tution); 1853, Oliver Dufour, Hazlett E. Dodd; in 1855, George W.
Harryman and David Cain; 1857, John W. and John J. Hayden; 1858-
59, William H. Gregory (session of 1858 a special one); 1861, Hugh T.
Williams; 1863, Robert N. Lamb; 1865, Augustus Welch; 1867, James
North; 1869, Stephen H. Stewart; 1871, William G, Holland; 1873;
Benjamin North; 1875, William T. Pate.
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 241
CHAPTER XV.
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH.
Location and Origin— The Early Village and Its Progress— The
Warren Murder— The Decade Betaveen 1830 and 1840— Observ-
ance of Independence Day, 1831— Laavrenceburgh a City— Growth
AND Progress— Odd Fellows Building and City Hall— The City
1858-59— The Banking Business— The Fire of July 4, 1866— Ecclesi-
astical History— Schools— Leading Manufacturing Interests-
Gas Works— Fire Department— Societies— Old Land Marks and
Relics— The Centennial Fourth.
LAWRENCEBURGH is situated on the right bank of the Ohio
River, occupying a position on a broad expanse of most fertile
bottom lauds, back of which there arises a ridge and range of hills, tow-
ering, perhaps, 100 feet above the valley, from which is presented a pic-
ture most grand to behold— the broad and extended bottoms coursed by
the Great Miami, the city with its many and graceful church spires
pointing heavenward, its huge and tall chimneys from the numerous fac-
tories, the majestic Ohio flowing beneath the chivalrous Kentucky hills.
The city is located in the southeastern part of the county, and is distant
by rail eighty-six miles southeast of Indianapolis, and twenty-one miles
a little west of south from Cincinnati, Ohio, and by river twenty-two
miles, lying in latitude 39° 5' north, and longitude 7° 35' west.
The city was laid out in April, 1802, the plat being recorded on the
8th by Samuel C. Vance, who was the original proprietor of the land on
which the original plat was made — fractional Section 14, Township 5,
Range 1 west— which Mr. Vance entered July 23, 1801. In addition to
this tract of land Mr. Vance entered a number of others and, it is said,
could not pay for them, and the tract on which the city was laid out was
re-entered, December 3, by Col. Benjamin Chambers, who was the pat-
entee. The surveying vs^as performed by Benjamin Chambers and James
Hamilton. The original plat we failed to find, but in the records of this
county over the date of May 29, 1812, at which time Mr. Vance as pro-
prietor acknowledged the plan of Lawrenceburgh as enlarged and altered
from the original plan on record in Hamilton County, Ohio (the place
being laid out when its site was a part of that county and State). The
plat comprised 196 in-lots, bounded about as follows: On the north by
242 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Elm Street, on the south by Mulberry Row, on the east by Front Street,
which bordered on a common lying between it and the river, and on the
west by Partition Lane. In addition to the above number of lots there
were fifty-five out-lots. The public square, on which is now situated the
court house and jail was bounded by High, Catharine, Charlotte and
Mary Streets. As compared with the original plat it was stated that the
front tier of lots was brought one pole nigher to the river; the lots on
Front and Second Streets were reduced in size, and New Street estab-
lished between the front and second tier of lots; five lots that were orig-
inally appropriated to the future enlargement of the town were in the
meantime laid out and disposed of as out-lots, the town having been
enlarged to a much greater extent on more suitable ground.
Early additions to the town were made as follows: In 1814 by Sam-
uel Ludlow, six lots out of his meadow lot fronting on Elm Street, and
on the east of that street; by John Elliott, of Philadelphia, in 1831, five
lots between New Street and River, and Elm and Short Streets; and
thirty-six lots, half on either side of Short Street and adjoining Parti-
tion Lane, in 1839, by William T. Cbafi'ee.
The town was named by Capt. Vance in honor of his wife, whose
maiden name was Lawrence.
Samuel Morrison is the authority for saying that in the autumn of
1802, Dr. Jabez Percival- erected the first house on the site of the town
and occupied it; it was a double log-cabin.
" Mr. Vance was a United States government surveyor, residing at
Cincinnati, Ohio, and having ascertained the good quality of the soil, and
the most eligible location, on account of the high ground upon these bot-
tom lands, naturally took advantage of his discovery, and bought all the
land on which the original town is situated; and also the balance of the
bottom up the river to a point where a line from the river north and
south struck the old channel of the Big Miami River, and afterward upon
the highest point of ground erected his residence, known to most of our
residents as the Omer Tousey property, in 1818, now owned by Col. Willis.
The whole river front of the original town is a public common, with the
reservation on the part of the layer out of the town and his successors,
heirs and assigns of maintaining the right to the land at the ferry, and a
ferry and warehouse. The balance belongs to the town, although many
persons have encroached upon it. It was trespass, though done through
ignorance of the fight of the town to the common. In the year 1809,
or thereabouts (the records having been destroyed by fire, we are unable
to give the exact date), Pinkney James laid out what is now called New-
town, by the name of Edenborough; not prospering in the selling of lots,
he followed his father, who laid out that town, to Rising Sun, in this
CITY OF LAWKENCEBURGH. 243
State, and in the year 1811, sold out the town of Edenborough.to Stephen
Ludlow, George Weaver. John Weaver and Thomas Porter, including the old
pond and embracing the property upon -which George Huschart's marble
works are now situated ; thence in a direct line to the raeanderino- of
Tanner's Creek, to a point where the north line of the old graveyard in
Newtown struck it, and thence east to where the old fence north and
south used to divide the new addition from the city dirt lot. Isaac Dunn
being elected to the Legislature, sitting at Corydon, then the capital of
the State, got the town of Edenborough vacated, but some years after-
ward, an opportunity offering for the sale of building lots, in connection
with Stephen Ludlow, who already owned a number of the lots of the old
town, had the old map, with the exception of the two southern tier of lots,
re-recorded and reinstated as a town under the statute, and it then was
incorporated with the old town of Lawrenceburgh as a part of the town."
— Centennial History.
Over the date of April 6, 1819, Isaac Dunn, a proprietor of New Law-
renceburgh, acknowledged a plat entered and laid off by him from the
town formely called Edenborough, to be an addition to Lawrenceburgh f
this consisted of 125 lots. Next to Tanner's Creek, ground was desig-
nated as a graveyard, and running parallel with that stream were desig-
nated Shipping, Main, Front and Water Streets, which were intersected
by First, High, Third and Fourth Streets.
By an act of the Legislature in the year 1846, Old and Newtown were
incorporated as a city. Since that date the town of Rossville has been
annexed to the city^ besides Eichelberger and Lewis added a large
addition, by the subdivision of high adjoining grounds into building lots
which have been sold, and are already greatly improved by fine residences
shops and manufactories. As a suburb, we have the beautiful town of
Greendale, with her large manufactories, many cozy cottages and palatial
residences.
"In former days, rival towns attempted to give our city bad repute on
account of an occasional overflow from the Ohio River, but owing to the
energy of the citizens, and the liberal expenditure of over $400,000 pub-
lic and private, and at least $200,000 by the respective railroads passing
through our city, we have succeeded in making fills and embankments to
that extent, that places us above the reach of high water. Time with
its destroying power has made sad havoc with the early landmarks of our
city's existence; the little log-cabins and houses have long since dis-
appeared and been forgotten. Death, the insatiable reaper, has been
busily at work during those days, and one by one has gathered home the
old pioneers, until at the time we write, there remains not one who viewed
the dawn of its existence. Those men of iron will and courage have
244 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
passed away, and the toils, suffering and dangers they encountered in
beating back the savage occupants, and reclaiming this magnificent
country from an unbroken wilderness, can never be realized by the gen-
erations that shall succeed them. At the present time Mr. Norval Sparks
is the oldest resident in our city, having settled here with his father's
family in the year 1806, and to him are we indebted for many of the
names, dates and incidents of those early times." — Centennial History.
THE EARLY VILLAGE AND ITS PROGRESS.
" In the year 1806, the principal buildings were the ferry house
on the bank of the river above Walnut Street and the warehouse below
Walnut Street, The residences were those of Benjamin Chambers and
Gen. James Dill on the bank of the river; James Hamilton and
Michael Jones lived on what is known to-day as Vail's Alley; what is
now known as New Street, was then called Second Street, and on it lived
Dr. Jabez Percival, Jesse B. Thomas, Capt. Samuel C. Vance and Elijah
Sparks. On High Street, below the railroad, lived Rev. Baldridge.
William Cook was jailer, and lived in the old log-jail; James Foster,
on the corner of Vine and High Streets, and carried on the business of
making chairs. Owing to the disadvantages James labored under, he
was not prepared to manufacture cushioned spring bottoms. William
Morgan lived on the corner of High and Walnut Streets; on the opposite
corner, known now as Burk's Corner, John Horner carried on a blacksmith
shop. Mr. John Gray kept store on the corner of Short and High
Streets. Jacob Horner kept tavern in a log-house, where the Anderson
House is, and Judge Isaac Dunn lived on the corner of New and High
Streets. Those embraced principally all the houses that were at that
time; the most of them were log. It is evident that the first house erected
on the site of Lawrenceburgh, was built by Dr. Jabez Percival, who had
imoiigrated here some years before. For a number of years there was
little growth to the city; here and there were erected the small log-
cabins by the new comers, and one peculiarily of the log-cabins of those
days was, the majority of the logs used in their erection were of Buck-
eye; it grew very plentifully, and was no doubt selected by the sturdy
old fellows on account of it being soft wood and easy to cut. The little
log- cabins would present quite a picturesque appearance during the first
year of their erection, young shoots would put forth from every log, and
give them the appearance of a large mass of green bushes.
" The courts at that date were held in the house of William Morgan,
on the corner of Walnut and High Streets; Judge Benjamin Park was the
district judge, and resided at Vincennes. Benjamin Chambei's was
associate judge; Samuel C. Vance was clerk; David Lamphere, sheriff,
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 245
and William Cook, jailer. The attorneys were Jesse B. Thomas, Michael
Jones, Elijah Sparks, and James Noble. The business was dispatched
promptly without the aid of professional jurors, and there were no
changes of venue granted. Upon the public square was erected the first
log-schoolhouse, which was also used as a meeting-house; the first teachers
were the Rev. Baldridge and a Mr. Fulton (house was removed in 1831).
Mr. Elijah Sparks preached for the Methodists; Rev. Baldridge, for the
Presbyterians, and Mr. John Watts who lived across the river in Ken-
tucky, for the Baptists. In the year 1810 the old brick court house,
(burned in 1826), was built." — Centennial History.
In 1818, the principal citizens of the village were Samuel C. Vance,
Benjamin Chambers, James Dill, Stephen Ludlow, Isaac Dunn, Benja-
min Piatt, Dr. Jabez Percival; Jacob Horner, proprietor of hotel; John
Horner, blacksmith; Walter Armstrong, inn-keeper; Samuel Fauncher,
constable;Timothy Davis; James McLeaster, shoe-maker; Charles Lee Brai-
ser, hatter; William Cook, jailor; old Mr. Kimball, wheelwright; John
Cox; William Cumberlain, proprietor of horse-mill; Dr. Ezra Ferris; Cham-
bers Foster; Zenas Hill, school teacher; Mr. Shaw; Mr. Thornbury;
James Hamilton; William Caldwell, justice of the peace, and David Ger-
ard. At this period there were but two brick houses, one stone, besides
the court house, and five frame houses, those of Vance, Chambers, Dill,
Ludlow and Dunn: all the others were log-houses. Of the young men
Andrew Morgan, Walter Hayes, Davis and John Weaver, and Samuel H.
Dowden are all that can be recollected after a lapse of seventy-two years.
In Daniel Drake's picture of Cincinnati and Miami Country, published
in 1815, it is stated that "Lawrenceburgh having occasionally suffered
inundation, has grown but little, and a new village called Edinborough
has been lately laid out on higher ground, about one-half mile from the
river, but this is not a place of much promise. The inhabitants of the
counties of Dearborn, Franklin and Wayne, received their supplies of
foreign goods almost exclusively from Cincinnati, but little, mercantile
capital being employed at Lawrenceburgh, and there being on the Great
Miami no depot of merchandise for that region." Two years later the
author of an emigrants' directory says, "In traveling seven miles through
the woods of Dearborn County, I counted two bears, three deer, and up-
ward of 100 turkeys. In the course of the day I missed my way and
wandered several miles in the wilderness."
"From the year 1812 to 1820, the town grew rapidly, and became the
business point for all the surrounding country, which had been rapidly
taken up and settled upon by immigrants from the older States. Many
substantial buildings were erected during this period. The principal
business men of this date were David P. Shook & Co., Samuel Vance,
246 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
John Gray, John H. & Benjamin M. Piatt, David Guard, Isaac Dunn,
John Eads & Co., William Pyne (tailor), Stephen Ludlow,' John Gibson,
Israel J. Canby, A. Morgan, Frederick Lucas, James W. Weaver, David
Rees, William Ewing, Joseph H. Coburn, Jacob Brasher, C. Fitch, E.
Hollister, James Hallowell, Harris Fitch, Jesse Hunt, W. Tate, Benja-
min Stockman, W. Armstrong, Thomas Shaw, John Bates, Noah Noble
& Co., Mary Brooks (milliner), Jared Evans, J. P., and David Bruner
was the barber. Dennis Duskey ran a trading boat from here to
Cincinnati, leaving every Monday morning, wind and weather permitting.
Every attention was given to goods committed to his care, and every ac-
commodation possible afforded to passengers. There was no bar on this
boat, and smoking was positively forbidden, and the first person caught
playing cards was at once set ashore. The captain reserving the right
to indulge in profanity whenever the occasion required it. In 1817
the first paper was published by B. Brown, called the Dearborn Gazette:
the office was located in a building on what is now known as Vail's Alley
the motto of the paper was "Equal and exact justice." During his ed-
itorial career the following incident occurred: Mr. John Jackson was
the mail carrier. His rout was from Cincinnati to Madison. He lived
at Georgetown, and made Lawrenceburgh a way-station, and would bring
the mail matter down tied up in his handkerchief. Brown took him to
task for his seeming carelessness, which irritated the courageous carrier,
who was a man of extraordinary physical strength, and as brave as he
was powerful, and he determined to chastise the impertinent editor.
Brown was a small man, but lacked no courage; when Jackson entered
the office to chastise him for his impertinence, he was busily engaged,
inking balls in hand, printing his paper, and as soon as he had come in
striking distance of him. Brown struck him in the eye with the ink balls,
and succeeding in making a good impression. Jackson was so aston-
ished at the mode of defense, and the weapons used by the Yankee
printer, blinded and blackened, he retired from the contest, proclaiming
he could whip his weight in "wild cats," but always preferred to pass
by the small odoriferous animal whose defense was more effectual than a
Chinese stink pot.
" Early in the spring of 1813, a horse thief was captured near Tan-
ner's Creek, who had in his possession a very fine horse, which he had
stolen from some honest pioneer. He died very suddenly with his boots
on. A few nights after his death it is reported that Dr. Jabez Percival,
the leading physician of the town, and Ezra Pugh, held a most thorough
post mortem examination xipon the body, and unfortunately for the ben-
efit of the medical society of the county of to-day, the old rough and
ready doctor and his able assistant, neglected to transmit the result of
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 247
that examination. But the records prove that it did not cost the tax-
payers anything, as there was no charge made for coroner or juror's
fees. At this time, The Farmers and Mechanics Bank was in existence.
Isaac Dunn was president, and Thomas Porter was cashier. The list of
physicians were Dr. Jabez Percival, Ezra Ferris, -John S. Percival, Mar-
maduke E. Ferris, Dr. Finch, Dr. Brower and Dr. Easton. The attor-
neys that practiced in the courts, were James Dill, Jesse B. Thomas,
Elijah Sparks, Thomas Wardell, John Lawrence, Amos Lane, James
Noble, Jesse L. Holman, Stephen C. Stephens, William Hendricks, Daniel
J. Caswell, Moses Hitchcock, Isaac S. Brower and George H. Dunn.
"Business was brisk, and the following was the price list as reported
to us by the chief clerk of the firm of Dunn & Ludlow: India muslin,
75 cents per yard; calico, 62| cents per yard; coffee, 75 cents per pound;
tea, $2.50 per pound; sugar, 50 cents per pound; indigo, $4 per pound;
madder, 50 cents; copperas, 25 cents; salt, $4.50 per barrel; iron, 12|
cents per pound; castings, 10 cents; flour, $5 per hundred; corn, 15
cents per bushel; potatoes, 15 cents; pork, $1.50 per hundred; beef,
$1.50 per hundred; eggs, 6^ cents per dozen; butter, 12| cents per
pound. In those days when a young sprig put on one of those muslin
shirts, he felt as exalted as the wearer of a ruffled shirt of to-day does
at a 'Centennial tea party,' and the fair Miss robed in one of those 62|-
cent calicoes made from five or six yards, as grand as the young Miss of
to-day does when she appears before the mirror to behold herself cos-
tumed for a 'Martha Washington reception.' In 1816 George Weaver
erected and operated a saw-mill in Newtown. The motive power was
supplied by two sturdy oxen; the number of feet sawed per day we are
unable to give, as there was no city measurer at that time. In 1820
Jesse Hunt erected the hotel on the corner of High and Walnut Streets,
known as the Anderson House, which is said to have been the first three-
story brick house erected in the State. Benjamin Stockman did the
brick work.
"The Lawrenceburgh Sunday-school Society was organized December
24, 1819, with Dr. Jabez Percival, president; George H. Dunn, secretary;
David P. Shook, treasurer; Dr. Ezra Ferris and Dr. Abram Brower,
superintendents. The directors of the Lawrenceburgh Library Company,
for the year 1820, were John Porter, John ^Veaver, Joseph H. Coburn,
Isaac S. Brower, Jabez Percival, James Dill and George H. Dunn. At
the annual election, January 3, 1820, to elect directors of the Farmers'
and Mechanics' Bank for the ensuing year, the following persons were
elected: Isaac Dunn, Ezra Ferris, Isaac Morgan, Walter Armstrong,
John^ Weaver, David Guard, Lazarus Noble, Stephen Ludlow, Levi
Miller, Moses Schott, George Weaver, Samuel Bond and Amos Lane.
248 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
" January 10, 1820, the first murder in the city occurred, by Amasa
Fuller killing Palmer Warren. January 6, 1820, the ladies of the city
met at the house of David Guard, and organized a female Sunday-
school. Mrs. Frances Dunn was president, and Polly Lane, secretary.
Miss Elizabeth Brower, Miss Mary Brooks and Mrs. Elizabeth Percival
were the committee on constitution and rules. Mrs. Elizabeth Percival,
Frances Dunn, Polly Lane, Rebecca Wright, Elizabeth Rice, Elizabeth
Brower, Anna Eads and Huldah Gardner were appointed superintend-
ents. Mrs. Mercy Porter, Misses Mary Brooks, Elizabeth Brower, Mary
Ann Brower, Lucretia Earl and Electa Wright volunteered as teachers.
Mrs, Bulah Guard was elected treasurer, and Miss Elizabeth Brower,
secretary.
" As an indication of the energy and enterprise of those days, it ap-
pears that the city fathers had the courage to assume an indebtedness of
$3,500 for the purpose of digging wells and filling up High Street. The
city grew quite rapidly, and became the business town of the State, and
the market point for all the adjoining counties extending as far west as
Indianapolis. The produce was all brought here in wagons, and this
was the shipping point for the southern markets. Great numbers of
trading and flat-boats were annually sent down the river, and a large
number of the citizens were engaged in that hazardous trade, and it is
claimed that there was more business done here in those days than at
the present time. And there were many noted characters here in the ze-
nith of their glory, many whose names have come down to us, brilliant with
the memory of their many good deeds and acts, and whose reputation was
co-extensive with their young and rising State, and who did much in laying
the solid foundations upon which we have builded,while there were some,
as in this day, noted for their dark and infamous deeds; of the latter class
we will mention one Daniel Brown, and there are quite a number of our old
citizens living to-day who remember him well. He is said to have been
one of the most powerful men of that time, nearly six feet in height,
straight as an arrow, and very active, at all times appearing in a smiling
mood, subtle and courageous as a lion. He was an active business man
and county commissioner. He kept a store on High Street, in the build-
ing where Mr. Moore's book- store is at the present time, and in addition
traded on the river. He was a noted counterfeiter and gambler, and in
one of his trips south he got into difficulty with gamblers at a noted
place known in those days to all river travelers as "Natchez Under the
Hill," and killed one of them. He succeeded in making his escape, and
proceeded to New Orleans, where he at once entered largely upon
counterfeiting, and was very successful, and it was some time before he
was detected. He was placed in jail, with others of the gang, and some
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 249
reports say he died, while others claim he succeeded in making his es-
cape; be that as it may, the citizens of this city never heard of him after
that time.
"March 13, 1826, the court house was burned, and all the records de-
stroyed— it was dui'ing the freshet of that year, the water was up around
the building at the time, and it was so cold that the next morning after
the fire it had frozen ice all around it. There is no doubt but it was the
work of an incendiary. The citizens of our city at that date were largely
imbued with the patriotic spirit that was transmitted by their Revolution-
ary sires, and the commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of
Independence was never permitted to pass by without a grand celebration
and jubilee, a day of rejoicing and good feeling. And to give our citi-
zens (whom we regret to say are fast forgetting the memories that clus-
tered around that day), an idea of how they celebrated, we give the
program of July 4, 1825: Maj. Langley, marshal; Maj. Spencer,
assistant marshal; the procession proceeded to the Methodist Church.
Beading the Declaration of Independence, by Capt. Samuel C. Vance;
address by George H. Dunn, Esq., after which the procession was formed
and proceeded to the hotel of John Gray for dinner. After the ladies
had retired, the patriotic old gentlemen proceeded to drink twenty- four
toasts, and acquitted themselves heroically, as they did every task
imposed, and with unfaltering courage never shrank from any undertak-
ing, and the record of that day no doubt did no discredit to their valor,
and with patriotism swelling every bosom, they closed the scene amidst
many cheers in response to the following toast: O. H. Perry, the hero of
Lake Erie.
' May the British lion lie and wheeze,
While swift the eagle flies,
Spreads her broad pinions o'er the seas,
And picks out both his eyes.'
"In those early times, in addition to the 4th of July, the general
election and muster days were times looked forward to with great inter-
est by the early pioneers. On election day they would gather for miles
and miles around at the voting precinct. Those of the more peacefully
and good naturedly inclined, would devote the day to fun and pleasure,
and in a jovial and enthusiastic manner would champion the interest of
their respective candidates, while the more pugilistically inclined, would
embrace the opportunity to display their physical powers, and on those
days many and bloody were the encounters that would occur between the
neighborhood champions, as their friends would gather around them to
see that there was fair play, as it was termed, and at it they would go,
regardless of the more Christianized rules of the London prize ring, and
250 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
many were the cheers that would greet the champion of Hogan, Wilson
of Tanner's Creek, as he was declared victor over the town champion,
who bleeding and discomfited would appease his wounded spirit by the
fond hope that he might be more successful the next time. Politics ran
high; they entered into it as in everything else, with all the vim and
energy of their enthusiastic natures; in championing their respective
candidates for the various oJB&ces, they rendered to them that devotion
and fidelity that would have done honor to the soldiers of Napoleon's Old
Guard. The papers of those times teemed with articles of a personal
nature, filled with the severest invectives, attacking both the public and
private characters of the politicians of the day. There seems to have
been one person who wrote under the nom deplume of the "Old Man
of the Mountain," said to have been James M. Bay, who had been drawn
into the battle with a number of the gallants, but from his mountain
fastness, up Tanner's Creek, hurled forth his poisoned javelins with an
energy that must have discomfited his opponents." — Centennial History.
From 1812 to 1834, there were no banks of much value in Dearborn
County, and consequently no place to dispose of the surplus produce
raised in the ' Big Bottom ' and Lawrenceburgh, and no way of pro-
curing money (which was silver) for the needs of the country. Conse-
quently, there were thirteen men of enterprise who began the New
Orleans trade; their names are Col. Benjamin Chambers, Andrew Mor-
gan, David, Ezra and Bailey Guard, Job Miller, Joseph, Walter and
Jacob Hayes, Abiah Hayes, Jacob Dennis, Isaac Dunn and Stephen
Ludlow. Among these traders, Jacob Hayes acted a prominent part.
These thirteen men were vastly of more importance to Lawi'enceburgh
and the surrounding country than any bank ever established here. They
bought up all of the surplus produce, paying for it in silver money, and
that too when the people needed it most. Jacob Hayes was a very active
and prominent trader on the river from 1820 to 1848, having from two
to five flat-boats loaded with produce on the river at one time. The
writer heard him say, that frequently he had all that he was worth afloat
on the river. Mr. Hayes was prominent in establishing the Lawrence-
burgh Insurance Company, and one among its largest stockholders. He
was also a large stockholder in the Lawrenceburgh Branch of the State
Bank of Indiana.
Quite an extensive business was done at Lawrenceburgh in 1826,
something that astonished the people. Its great business interest and
commercial supremacy is thus set forth by Mr. John Scott:
"Some idea can be formed of the commerce and growing importance
of this town and county by the following statement of produce shipped
at the river, for the Mississippi and lower country market, from the 1st
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 251
of January to the Ist of May, 1826, a period of four months. In giv-
ing this statement we have confined ourselves almost exclusively to the
produce of the neighborhood of the town, not having it in our power to
give the whole amount of produce exported from the county, which
would, it is believed, swell the sum to $80,000 or $100,000.
SHIPMENT.
14,140 bushels corn @ 50 cents per bushel I 7,070 00
51 horses @ $75 each 3,825^00
136toasof hay;@ |30 per ton 2,720 00
45 head of cattle @ $25 each 1,125 00
2,131 barrels pork @ $6 12,786 00
1,393 kegs lard @ $3 4,179 00
493 live hogs @ |5 2,465 00
66 hogsheads of hams @ $32 per hogshead 2,112 00
10 tons hams @ |5 per cwt 1,000 00
11 barrels hams @ fSJper barrel 88 00
80 bushels of potatoes @ 50 cents per bushel 40 00
186 barrels flour @ $3 per barrel 558 00
500 gallons whisky @ 25 cents per gallon 125 00
453 kegs tobacco @ $10.50 a keg 4,756 00
74 dozen chickens @ $2 per dozen 148 00
12,250 lbs. pork, in bulk @ 4 cents 490 00
$41,467 50"
The writer said he made no mention of small ai'tieles, such as oats,
hoop-poles, flax seed, etc., which he thought would run up to $6,000 or
$7,000, yet it had amounted to the above large sum. He also informed
us that to carry this enormous amount of produce to market it required
twenty flat-boats, which cost an average each of $100. He places the
population of Lawrenceburgh at 700. It had 150 handsome brick and
frame dwellings, nine stores, five taverns, six lawyers and three physi-
cians, with a vast number of mechanics of various professions.
There was a storehouse five stories high, which was considered the
best from Cincinnati to the Falls (at Louisville). "There is also," says
the writer, "an extensive silk lace factory established in the town, which
supplies a large district of country with the article, and the only one of
the kind west of the mountains (referring to the Alleghanies), also a
printing office and a Masonic lodge."
The following description of Lawrenceburgh is taken from a geogra-
phy and history of the Western States published in 1828:
"It stands on the north bank of the Ohio, twenty-three miles below
Cincinnati, and two below the Big Miami, which is the eastern limit of
the State. This town is in the center of a rich and deep bottom. The
ancient village was built on the first bottom, which was frequently
252 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
exposed to inuadation. It is not uncommon for the water to rise four or
five feet above the foundations of the houses and stores, in which case
the inhabitants remove to the upper story, and drive their domestic ani-
mals to the hills. Visits and tea parties are projected in the inundated
town, and the vehicles of transport are skiffs and pirogues. The period
of the flood, from ancient custom, and from the suspension of all the
customary pursuits, has become a time of carnival. The floods, instead
of creating disease, wash the surface of the earth, carry off vegetable
and animal matter that would otherwise putrify, and are supposed to be
rather conducive to health than otherwise. The old town, built on the
first bank, has been stationary for many years. New Lawrenceburgh
has been recently built on the second bank, and on elevated ground,
formed by the bank of Tanner's Creek. Since the commencement of
this town, few places have made more rapid progress. Many of the new
houses are handsome, and some of them make a splendid show from the
river. Its position in relation to the river, and the rich adjacent coun-
try, and the Big Miami is highly eligible. It has a number of commenc-
ing manufactories, and promises to be a large town."
THE WARREN MURDER.
The following account of the murder of Palmer Warren by Amasa
Fuller at Lawrenceburgh, in 1820, and the trial and execution of the
latter, is taken from the Indiana Oracle of May 7, and August 15, 1820:
" The Circuit Court for Dearborn County closed its session on Satur-
day last. The whole of the term was consumed by the trial of Amasa
Fuller, on an indictment for the murder of Palmer Warren. Few trials
have excited more general interest, as well from the character and appear-
ance of the prisoner, as from the circumstances which led to the atrocious
deed. The circumstances are briefly these: Fuller had for some consid-
erable time prior to the murder of Warren, been attentive to a young
lady who was residing with her uncle in Lawrenceburgh. About the last
of November, 1819, Fuller left this place for Brookville; while there, the
unfortunate deceased commenced an intimacy with the young lady to
whom Fuller had been before attached; their intimacy resulted in an
engagement of marriage, which was to have been consummated on the
fatal 10th of January, 1820.
"It appeared in evidence, that about the middle or last of December,
Fuller, then at Brookville, received a letter in the handwriting of War-
ren, and signed by the young lady, inclosing a ring, in which she
renounced all feelings of attachment toward him, and returned him the
ring which she had received from him in pledge; that after the receipt
of this letter. Fuller appeared gloomy and melancholy, and on Friday,
CITY OF LAAVRENCEBURGH. 253
January 7, he left Brookville on foot, and arrived at Lawreneeburgh in
the evening of that day; after changing his wet clothes (it having rained)
he went into the house of the young lady's uncle, next to Mr. Coburn's
hotel, where he put up, and was there frequently between the time of his
arrival from Brookville and the day of the murder; meeting Warren at
the house he several times attempted to quarrel with him, which Warren
as often declined. On Saturday, the 5th of January, it appeared that
Fuller borrowed a pair of pistols with the avowed design of shooting at
a mark, in which amusement he requested several young men to partici-
pate. On the afternoon of that day, he asked a Mr. Hitchcock if he would
go out and hunt with him; he replied that he would, and would go for
his gun; Fuller answered, ' I do not hunt with guns, but with pistols.'
On Sunday, January 9, Fuller seemed cool and collected, talked on vari-
ous subjects with his fellow boarders, and declared he had no pretensions
to the young lady in question. On Monday morning, January 10, he
asked Mr. Hitchcock, when up in his room at the hotel, which was the
best way to load a pistol and the surest way to kill; and observed, ' I am
afraid that this pistol has not enough powder in it; how shall I shoot it
off so as not to be heard ? (it must be observed that Warren's office is
under the same roof with Coburn's Hotel.) Fuller went down stairs,
and shortly after came up, saying, ' I have shot it off and no person heard
me.' Fuller then loaded the pistols with powder and four slugs each.
Hitchcock told him he hoped he had no evil design. Fuller replied, 'I
have Dot, but will show you some fun.' Fuller then put on a great coat,
which he had borrowed from Mr. Coburn, and feeling it had pockets, he
put one pistol in each pocket of the coat, and walked down stairs, having
previously asked Hitchcock if he could discover that he had pistols. It
appeared further in evidence, that Fuller left the house, came back and
went out again; he was seen by Mr. Farrar (who was standing in the
door of his house, next but one to Warren's office), to come out of Coburn's
bar-room about a yard behind Warren, who unlocked the door of his
office and entered, followed by Fuller; in about three- fourths of a minute
Mr. Farrar heard the report of a pistol in Warren's office, instantly ran
there, and attempting to open the door, it was stopped by something, and
looking down he discovered the body of Warren lying crosswise the door;
he pushed open the door, and upon entering the office discovered Fuller
standing beside the body, and the room tilled with smoke and the smell
of powder. Warren was not yet dead, but struggling in the last agonies.
Mr. Farrar seized hold of Fuller, exclaiming! 'Good heavens! Fuller, is
it possible you have done this?' Fuller replied, *I am a man, and have
acted the part of a man; I have been ridding the earth of a vile reptile;
I glory in the deed! ' The pistols were found lying on the counter in
254 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
the office, one discharged of its contents, the other still charged; a writ-
ing was found on the iioov, the substance of which was, that Warren, in
the presence of Almighty God, swore to renounce all pretensions to the
young lady, and acknowledged himself to be a base liar and a scoundrel.
Fuller said, after his arrest, that he had presented this paper to Warren^
desiring him to sign it; he refused; he then offered him a pistol, bidding
him defend ^himself like a man; this Warren also refused, and that he
then shot the cowardly rascal. The body of Warren was pierced with a
wound just below the pap of the left breast. It does not appear that
Warren had ever taken any undue advantages of Fuller, or even spoke
a disrepectful word of him to the young lady or any other person.
"The prosecution was conducted by Amos Lane and John Test, Esqs. ,
the prisoner was ably defended by Charles Dewey, Joseph S. Benham,
Daniel J Caswell, William C. Drew, Samuel Q. Richardson, and Merrit
S. Craig, Esqs. The counsel for the prisoner moved to continue the
trial until the next term of this court, on an affidavit of the absence of
two material witnesses. This motion was overruled by the court because
not stating the facts to^be proved by those two witnesses. Another
motion was then made for continuance by the counsel for the prisoner,
on affidavit that popular prejudice ran so high, that the prisoner could
not have a fair trial. The opinion of the Court was: That if the fact
thus stated came to the knowledge of the prisoner subsequent to the
former motion for a continuance, he would listen to it; but as it does
not appear that it did, the motion was overruled. The defense set up
on the trial was insanity. It, however, appeared in evidence that the
prisoner had been thought by those witnesses who had seen him, to be
more gloomy and melanchoUy than usual, and as if something disturbed
his mind; but nothing like insanity was made out. After a long and
patient hearing of the testimony, which was very consistent and positive,
and after an able defense by the prisoner's counsel, the jury retired,
and in about two hours returned into the court with a verdict of guilty.
On Saturday morning the sentence of the court was passed by his honor,
Judge Eggleston, that the prisoner at the bar be remanded to his place
of confinement, and be thence conducted on Friday, the 31st of March?
inst., to the place of execution, and be there hanged by the neck until he
be dead! Fuller preserved throughout his trial, and at the time the
Judge pronounced to him his awful doom that his days were numbered,
a stern, inflexible countenance.
"Yesterday (Tuesday, August 14, 1820) being the day appointed for
the execution of Amasa Fuller, who was condemned for the murder of
Palmer Warren, thousands of men, women and children, from all quarters^
assembled to witness the awful spectacle. At about 11:30 o'clock A. M.,
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 255
the prisoner was conducted from the jail, accompanied^by several minis-
ters of the gospel, and under a strong military guard; on reaching the
scaffold he ascended the ladder with a firm and steady[step; a^ psalm
was then sung; the throne of Grace was addressed by the Eev. Mr.
Lambden (who had attended him for several days), a short address was
then made to the multitude by the Rev. Mr. Plummer, after which the
ordinance of baptism was administered to him by Mr. Lambden. After
taking an affectionate leave of the ministers, sheriff, and a few others,
the cap was drawn over his face, and at about 12:30 the drop fell — here
let us pavise — the rope broke, and he fell to the ground. He was imme-
diately again suspended, and after a few struggles his spirit took its
flight, we trust, to take a seat in that mansion above, 'not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.' The body hung about forty minutes,
when it was cut down and given to his friends for interment.
"This unfortunate man had long been one of the strongest advocates
for infidelity, but, oh, with what rapture do we proclaim to his friends,
to the world of mankind, that he gave the blessed assurance that it
pleased the Almighty to open his eyes to the truth of the gospel. He
publicly renounced all his former opinions and relied wholly upon the
merits of the Redeemer for a blessed immortality. "
THE DECADE BETWEEN 1830 AND 1840.
From the year 1820 to 1830 the town increased beyond the expecta-
tions of the incorporators; the future prospects were indeed gratifying;
everything indicated that the town was destined to become one of the
largest in our State, all the various kinds of manufactories'^ were being
established. Substantial buildings were rapidly being erected, and a
spirit of energy and enterprise seemed to pervade all the citizens, who
ever took a just pride in a town of their creation. Substantial churches
and schoolhouses were being built, good and wholesome laws were being
adopted for the government of the corporation, and all was prosperous
until the year 1832, when the great floods of that year seemed to crush
for a time its growth, and dampened the energy of its citizens. The
flood occurred in February of that year, and rose to a greater height
than any that had preceded it since the settlement of this town, or any
that has occurred since that date. It was between two and three feet
above the present level of High Street. It was quite disastrous, destroy-
ing a great deal of property, and carrying off a number of small frame
and log-houses. The town presented a novel appearance for nearly two
weeks; the entire business was carried on by the citizens floating around
on rudely constructed rafts. There were no promenade concerts, and
the old-fashioned, quilting parties our early dames delighted in, were
256 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
unavoidably postponed. Everybody was on a common level, and the
cattle and hogs had rights that were respected, and after the waters had
subsided, it was discovered that an old sow had taken posession of the
pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church on Walnut street; and dur-
ing the entire time remained secure in her devotions from the interference
of the outside rabble.
Near this time there occurred an accident that cast a gloom over
the town. The little log-house erected on the southwest corner of High
and Walnut Streets, by William Morgan, was still standing, and in it
was kept a store by Darragh & Askew; adjoining on High Street, Mv.
John L. Bishop had erected a brick building for a saddler shop, and run
up a fire wall next to the log building. One evening during a storm, the
fire wall was blown over upon the log building. There were in it at the
time Mr. Askew Darragh, John Mason, James M. Brasher and Thomas
Longley. Mr. Askew was instantly killed. Mason was so severely hurt
that he died in a short time afterward. Darragh, Brasher and Longley
escaped with very slight injuries.
For a few years, the improvement of the city was very slack, but
upon the passage of the Internal Improvement Bill by the Legislature,
and the town being made the terminus of the White Water Canal, a fresh
impetus was given, and buildings and manufactories were erected rapidly.
The most of the three- story blocks of business houses in the city at pres-
ent, were built during this period, including the old bank building. A.
P. Hobb's distillery was built in 1836. E. D. Johns' flour-mill, known
now as the Old Water Mill, in 1837. Brown & Lamping were manufact-
uring furniture where Burkam's planing-mills are. Edwin G. Pratt had
a foundry in Newtown. John B. Carrington, a man of extraordinary
mechanical genins, was engaged in making steam engines. George H.
Dunn and John Test were engaged in testing the capacity of the town to
support a cotton factory, between the vacation of their courts, as they
were both very prominent lawyers, but men of great energy, and devoted
to building up the town of their pride. The report comes down to us
that the project succeeded in the same degree that our magnificent woolen
mills of to-day has. Very soon the spindles remained idle. Cooperage
was manufactured to a large extent, and a great deal of pork was an-
nually packed here. Hon. George H. Dunn had commenced his project
to build a railroad from here to Indianapolis, and urged it forward with
his usual characteristic energy, the citizens of the town rendering their
iiniversal support, and contributing liberally of their means, but was
ultimately forced to abandon it, Mr. Vandegraflf, the chief engineer
having died near Greensburgh, while engaged in making the survey,
which caused the suspension of the work for some time. Afterward the
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 257
survey was completed, estimates made, and contracts for work entered
into, and commenced in many places along the line, when on account of
the financial difficulties of 1838 and 1839, the company was forced to
abandon the undertaking, resulting in a heavy loss to many uf the
stockholders, and a great detriment to the growth of the city."
OBSEKVANCE OF INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1831.
The anniversary of American Independence in 1831 was celebrated in
Lawrenceburgh by the different Sabbath-schools in the neighborhood.
About 11 o'clock a procession was forrned on High Street, under the
direction of the marshals of the day, and proceeded to a grove about one-
quarter of a mile from town, where the Declaration of Independence was
read, and a very appropriate and eloquent address delivered by Judge
Holman. After which suitable refreshments were distributed among the
children, and they were then marched back to town and dismissed; pres-
ent 1,000 persons.
On the same day a number of citizens convened at the house of Mr.
H. Fitch, and partook of an excellent dinner prepared by him. The
company then removed to another table, prepared for drinking toasts,
where the Declaration of Independence was read by Judge Test, and a
variety of patriotic toasts disposed of with the utmost harmony and good
feeling. Capt. Thomas Porter presided on this occasion.
LAWRENCEBURan A CITY.
Old and New Lawrenceburgh were incorporated as a city in 1846,
under " an act granting the citizens of Madison and Lawrenceburgh a
City Charter. " The first election was held at Lawrenceburgh April 6,
1846, at which were elected David Macy and Milton Beach, councilmen
for the First Ward, and Gardner Elliott for the Second Ward. By the
"Indiana Register," a State work published in 1846, Lawrenceburgh then
contained a population of 3,000. The names of the attorneys, physi-
cians and business men given in that publication were as follows: Attor-
neys— George H. Dunn, Amos Lane, P. L. Spooner, John Ryman, D. S.
Major, Abram Brower, D. Macy, William S. Holman, James T. Brown,
James H. Lane, J. S. Jelley and T. Gazley ; physicians — Ezra Ferris,
Jeremiah H. Brown, Elisha Morgan, M. H. Harding, E. P. Bond, Milo
Black and William Starm ; principal merchants — George Tonsey, C. G.
W. Comegys, John Gray, Craft & Co., Lemly & Dunn, Wymond & Ferris,
Houck & Wedelstaldt, J. Gyse & Co. , R. & A. Parry, L. B. Lewis, James
S. Heath, John Ferris & Co.
GROWTH AND PROGRESS.
Important eras in the city's history, which greatly contributed to its
15
258 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
growth and progress, were in the decade between 1830 and 1840, when
was agitated the question of internal improvements; the bill passing in
1836, which led to the construction of the Whitewater Canal soon after,
the terminus of which was at Lawi-enceburgh; the agitation and build-
ing of the railroads through the city, which were soon thereafter begun,
though not completed until early in the decade between 1850 and 1860,
and the introduction and building of the macadamized roads and pikes,
which were begun late in the decade between 1830 and 1840, and were
gradually completed and extended in succeeding decades. In the year
1850 Mr. George H. Dunn, the leading spirit in the building of the
Lawrenceburgh & Indiannpolis Railroad, succeeded in reviving the com-
pany, which on account of the fijiancial difficulties of 1838 and 1839
had been forced to abandon the undertaking, and the road was complet-
ed. From that date to the present time, the city has continued to enjoy
a slow and sure growth, and has become noted for its various manufacto-
ries, and the enterprise of its citizens.
The census of 1830 gave Lawrenceburgh a population of 895; the
estimated population of 1833 was 1,000, when the place presented 9
mercantile stores, 1 drug store, 3 taverns, eight lawyers, 4 physi-
cians, 3 schools, 2 brick churches, a brick court house, a stone jail,
a market house, and 2 printing offices, each of which issued a weekly
newspaper; and since 1840, as given by the United States census,
at each decade (except 1860) it has been as follows: 1840, 1,450; 1850,
2,651; 1870, 3,159; 1880, 4,700. The population is now (1885) estimat-
ed at upward of 5,000. Of the population of 1880,4,700, 1,075 were
of foreign birth. During the decade between 1870 and 1880 the city was
in a flourishing condition, and ranked among the first manufacturing
cities in the State. At this writing (1885) though having escajDed but
one year out of four, during which the city was submerged throughout
by the floods of the Ohio River, causing a great destruction of property,
besides a suspension of business for days and weeks at a time, the citi-
zens ai'e evincing a determination to maintain the high position the
city has gained as a manufacturing point, and a spirit of enterprise and
public improvement is exhibited by them never excelled under like cir-
cumstances. During the building season of 1883, after the second flood,
in addition to reconstructing houses wrecked by the flood, over fifty new
buildings were erected, costing from $500 to 83,000 each. The previous
season (1882) there were fifty- one buildings erected. In 1880 the city
presented sixteen productive establishments of industry, with a capital
of $1,350,000 invested, and a total value of manufactured products of
$1,895,952 during the census year, for which was paid for wages $290,-
967. This included only those factories that produced over $500 annu-
ally.
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 259
ODD FELLOWS BUILDING AND CITY HALL.
On the southeast corner of Walnut and High Streets is located a
graceful three- story brick building, 44x75 feet, the first floor of which is
used as store rooms, the second as a public or city hall, and the third
floor is the Odd Fellows Hall, for which purpose the building was erected
in 1853 at U cost of about $8,000 in round numbers, the greater portion
of which was subscribed by the order of Odd Fellows of the city. The
building was completed in 1855, and Oddl Fellows Hall dedicated June
6 of that year. The completion of this edifice was the occasion of some
demonstration on the part of the citizens of the city. On the morning
of its dedication. Grand Representative Daniel Moss, of Grreensburg,
Ind., officiated as Grand Master at the ceremonies held in the hall. In
the afternoon the order, attired in their rich regalia, formed in a proces-
sion attended by the Newport Brass Band, paraded the streets and
assembled at the depot of the Big Four Railroad, where an address was
delivered by Rev. I. D. Williamson, of Cincinnati. During the after-
noon and evening the ladies held a strawberry festival at the hall.
THE CITY, 1858-59.
From a business standpoint Lawrenceburgh made the following
exhibit in 1858-59: 1 steam flouring-mill, 1 water flouring-mill, 3 dis-
tilleries, 2 breweries, 5 hotels, 2 newspaper offices, 6 churches and 10
schools, with an estimated population of 4,000 inhabitants.
Adler, L., milliner.
Adler, H., dealer in dry goods.
Armstrong, C , manufacturer of chairs and furniture.
Anderson, B. T. W. S., proprietor eating saloon.
Bartholomew, Joseph, proprietor Lawrenceburgh House.
Barkdall, D. S., cooper.
Beckenholdt, John, brewer.
Beckman, Alexander, proprietor wharf boat and commission merchant,
Boese, H, confectioner and dealer in fancy goods.
Bolander, Amos, proprietor Bolander House.
Bookwalter, A., editor and proprietor Democratic Register.
Brodbeck, George, ice cream saloon.
Brown, William, manufacturer of furniture.
Brown, James T., attorney at law.
Browneller, F., tanner and currier.
Bryant & Lord, manufacturers steam engines and boilers, saw and
grist-mi ir machinery, etc.
Buel, G. P., produce and commission merchant.
Carbaugh & Braun, grocers.
260 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Chapman & Sons, grocers.
Chew, J. P., dealer in books, stationery, etc., and agent Adams
Express Co.
Crist & Bell, dealers in hardware.
Crontz, J. D., blacksmith.
Crooker, Mrs. E. A., milliner and dress-maker.
Dexheimer, Philip, blacksmith.
Dorr, v., blacksmith.
Dorr, J., wagon- maker.
Dowden, O. W., saddler and harness-maker.
Drake & Merrill, wagon-makers.
Dunn, Mrs. S. E., ambrotypist.
Eckert, M., boot and shoe-maker.
Edwards, Miss Annie, milliner.
Ferguson, G. W., house and sign painter.
Ferris & Abbott, druggists.
Ferris, J., insurance agent.
Fichter, M., boot and shoe-maker.
Finney, Gr. B., pump-maker.
Fitch, D. C, grocer.
Fitch, H,, proprietor Fitch House.
Focal, Peter, proprietor Railroad House.
Frances, J. & T., carpenters.
Frederick, P., brick- maker.
Prein, P., boot and shoe- maker.
Gaff & Marshall, millers and distillers.
Gurnier & Ebert, brewers.
Guzley, T. & C, attorneys.
Grojf, R., dealer in hats and caps.
Gysie, J., grocer and dealer in liquors.
Harding & Tate, physicians and surgeons.
Hanbold, N. , boot and shoe-maker.
Hauck, J. J., hardware dealer.
Heifer & Woodward, carriage manufacturers.
Helmuth, H. R., dealer in dry goods.
Henry, J. W., saddles and harness.
Herrold, H., daguerrean artist.
Hirsch, H., tobacconist.
Hitzfield, A., dealer in wines and liquors.
Hitzfield, A., attorney.
Hobbs, H. K., cashier Branch Bank.
Hommer, J., grocer.
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 261
Hornberger, John, dealer in wines and liquors.
Huschart, G., dealer in marble.
Johnson, F. S., stoves and tinware.
Junker, J. M. , boot and shoe-maker.
Junker, A., barber.
Kalen, B., tailor.
Kauffman, I. C, cooper.
Kestner, G. A., proprietor Rossville Exchange.
Kraas, William, grocer and baker.
Kramer, F., grocer and liquor dealer.
Krastner, A. grocer.
Luke, Miss Martha, milliner.
Lewis & Eichelberger,'*^millers.
Lewis & Moore, dealers in dry goods.
Lewis, L. B. & Bro., dry goods dealers.
Loge, J. P., clothier.
Lominel, H., grocer.
Lommel, P., resturantand grocer,
Lucas, T. J., watchmaker and jeweler.
Ludlow & Tate, lumber dealers and manufacturers.
Lutman, H., boot and shoe-maker.
Lyons, M., tobacconist.
Mass, M. , merchant tailor.
McCormick, J., merchant tailor.
McGrath, T., blacksmith.
Major, D. S., attorney.
Martin, S. A., editor and proprietor Republican Banner.
Martin, S., cooper.
Moody, A., barber.
Moody, I., barber.
Mooney, J., clothier.
Moore & Spooner, grocers.
Moore, Mrs. L. A., milliner.
Moore, Reuben, cooper.
Morgan & Son, distillers.
Morgan, A., dry goods and groceries.
Morgan, F., boot and shoe-maker.
Nevitt, Major & Co., commission merchants.
Puny, R. H., dealer in dry goods.
Pfeister, F., boot and shoe-maker.
Ret j en, C, barber.
Richards, J. F., justice of the peace.
262 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Eiddell, F., postmaster.
Rittenhouse & Williams, millers and distillers.
Rodgers, R., livery stable.
Roth, Michael, grocer.
Schmidt, J. F., boarding house and saloon.
Schmitt, A., physician and surgeon.
Schneider, W. boot and shoe-maker.
Schwartz, John, attorney (mayor).
Schwartz, Alex, dealer in wines and liquors.
Schwartz, Alex, clothier.
Siemandel, J. cooper.
Sheldon, G. B., stoves and timware.
Smith, H. F., grocer.
Smith. H. F., coal dealer.
Sparks, D. E., dealer in dry goods.
Sparks, N., grocer.
Spooner, P. L., attorney.
Spoon er, B. J., attorney.
Stum, Andrew, cooper.
Swope, J. H., cooper.
Temple, C. W., insurance agent.
Ulrey, J. P., dentist.
Walter, R., druggist.
Wipple, A., proprietor Washington Hall.
Water, P., blacksmith.
Werneke & Muerman, tobacconists.
Wert, W., cooper.
White, Mrs. E., dressmaker.
Wuest, P. H., baker.
^Wymond, John, grocer,
Zimmerman, P., tailor.
THE BANKING BUSINESS.
The first banking institution! of the early village was known as the
Farmers and Mechanics Bank, which had an existence, probably, of not
more than a decade at the furthest. Its business was carried on in the
brick building adjoining the residence of W. D. H. Hunter, on High
Street, a date on the building indicating that it was erected in 1817.
Isaac Dunn was president, and Thomas Porter was cashier of this bank
at about this time. In 1820 the directors of this bank were Isaac Dunn,
Ezra Ferris, Isaac Morgan, Walter Armstrong, John Weaver, David
Guard, Lazarus Noble, Stephen Ludlow, Levi Miller, Moses Schott,
George Weaver, Samuel Bond and Amos Lane.
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 263
The State Bank of Indiana was chartered January 13, 1834, and com-
menced operations November 19, of that year, with ten branches, having
a capital stock of 11,760,000. A branch was established at Lawrence-
burgh, November 15, of that year. The first board of directors were
Omar Tousey, William Tait, Norval Sparks, J. P. Dunn, Walter Hayes,
George Tousey, D. S. Major and Richard Tyner, of Brookville. The
directors on the part of the State were Pinkney James and Jesse Hunt.
The first president of the bank was Omar Tousey, and the first cashier
Enoch D. John. The institution was to have commenced operations in
the latter part of November, 1834, with a capital stock of $80,000. The
branch at Lawrenceburgh erected the elegant and substantial banking
house on the northeast side of Short Street between High and the Ohio
& Mississippi Railroad, now occupied by the Peoples National Bank.
This bank, on the expiration of its charter, was succeeded by the Bank
of the State of Indiana, a branch of which was established at Lawrence-
buro-h, the business of which was carried on in the same building above
referred to, and under the same regime, the latter being officered for
some years by E. G. Burkam as president, and H. K. Hobbs, cashier.
August 5, 1863, was organized the First National Bank of Lawrence-
burgh by Walter Hayes, Joseph Hayes, Jr., Anson Marshall, Theodore
Gazlay, Carter Gazlay, DeWitt C. Fitch, Ezra G. Hayes, Samuel Morri-
son, Isaac Dunn, Thomas Sunman, Samuel L. Jones, James C. Hayes and
James C. Martin, with a capital stock of $55,000. The directors were
Walter Hayes, Samuel Morrison, Samuel L. Jones, DeWitt C. Fitch,
Carter Gazlay, E^J. Hayes and Joseph Hayes, Sr. ; president, DeWitt
C. Fitch; Isaac Dunn, cashier. The bank was carried on in the building
located on Short Street, nearly opposite the Peoples' National Bank, is
built of brick and two stories high, 24x64 feet, fire proof,
with the Masonic Lodge]in the upper story. It is fitted up in fine
style for the business, with a fire proof vault, and one of Hall's latest im-
proved burglar safes. At different times the capital stock was increased
until it reached $100,000. Mr. Fitch was annually elected its president
from its organization to its close. This bank, on the expiration of its
charter, merged into the City National Bank of Lawrenceburgh, in Feb-
ruary, 1883, which suspended business in August, 1883.
On the 19th of June, 1865, the old branch of the bank of the
State was transferred into a national bank with a paid up capital of
$200,000. The directors were] Joseph H. Burkam, Joseph Hayes, Sr.,
Ezra, G. Hayes, L. B. Lewis, K. M. Lewis, E. S. Blasdell, Warren
West, W. H. Baker, Samuel Morrison. Ezra G. Hayes was chosen
president and L. B. Lewis cashier. The county press at this time thus
commented on this organization: "The large wealth, high moral stand-
264 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
ing and business qualifications of the owners, directors and officers is
an ample and sufficient guarantee to the public for any confidence that
may be reposed in the institution." The business of the bank was
transacted under the name off the Lawrenceburgh National Bank. In
1872, this bank was succeeded by a private bank styled the Lawrence-
burgh Banking Company, owned and managed by E. G. and J. H.
Burkam, which in February, 1875, was succeeded by a private bank
styled the Peoples Bank under the firm name of William Probasco,
Braun & Co., with a capital of from $50,000 to $100,000. January 1,
1882, the Peoples Bank merged into the Peoples National Bank, with a
capital stock of $100,000, conducted under the same management and offi-
cered by William Probasco, president; Henry Probasco, vice-president;
Peter Braun, cashier; and Will Braun, assistant cashier; all men whose
business qualifications are well known and appreciated, and who have the
entire confidence of the city and surrounding country. Mr. Braun
(who has had many years'experience in the banking business), and his son
are courteous and affable men to transact bu.siness with. This, the only
living bank of the city, is carried on in the building erected by the
branch of the State bank.
THE FIRE OF JULY 4, 1866.
Probably the greatest fire that ever visited the city, which in two
hours laid waste fifteen or twenty buildings and stables in the central
portion of the place, destroying property to the value of $60,000, oc-
curred July 4, 1866. The fire originated in a shed in the rear of the prop-
erty formerly owned by William Kraas, on High Street, between Short
and Elm. The heaviest loss was by Lewis & Eichelberger, who had over
1,000 barrels of dour and 15,000 empty barrels burned in their ware-
house; total including building $20,000, fully covered by insurance. The
next heaviest loss was by Bryant & Lord, of their foundry buildings,
some machinery, and a large number of valuable patterns, also their
dwelling on Elm Street; loss $15,000, insured for $3,000. John H.
Ross' dwelling; loss $2,500, insurance $1,000. Isaac Dunn's loss,
dwelling occupied by Mrs. Strange Dunn, $1,000, barn and contents
$2,000, insurance $700. Nevitt & Major's warehouse, loss $5,000. Jas.
Wyman & Co., 500 oil barrels stored in warehouse, $1,000. Mr, Van-
horn, 100 tons of hay, insurance $1,000. Lawrenceburgh woolen factory,
machinery stored in warehouse, value $1,000, insurance $850. M,
Zimmer two-story brick bake shop and out-buildings, loss $1,000. There
were a number of minor losses.
CITY OF LA.WRENCEBURGH. 265
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Laivrenceburgh. — Since its first
planting in this country a little over 100 years ago, Methodism has
always kept even pace with Western immigration. Scarcely has the rude
cabin of the forest been completed, and the first fire kindled upon the
earthen hearth by the venturesome immigi-ant, till the Methodist preacher,
blazing his way through the almost unbroken forest in search of the lost
sheep of Israel, has knocked at his door and shared the hospitality of his
home.
Literally was this true with regard to the present site and adjacent
vicinity of Lawrenceburgh. When but few trees had yet been felled,
and few cabins reared, when there was no nucleus of a town here, per-
haps even before Jabez Percival, Hamilton, and Oapt. Vance had erected
their log-houses at this place along the banks of the Ohio, the Methodist
preacher, with saddle bags and umbrella (necessary companions of the
early pioneer ministers), visited this place, collected the widely scattered
settlers to a private house, broke to them the bread of life, aud organ-
ized the believers into a society.
As early as the year 1802, the present site and adjacent vicinity of
Lawrenceburgh, being included in what was known as the Miami circuit,
had the pastoral care of Elisha W. Bowman, with quarterly visitations of
William Burk, a man of sterling qualities, as presiding elder, who served
in this capacity for the disciplinary limit of four years. During the years
1802 and 1803, while Mr. Hamilton, Jabez Percival and Capt.
Vance were building their rude dwellings and searching through the cat-
alogue of cities to find a name for the coming town — in which the latter
succeeded, calling it Lawrence, after his wife's maiden name — Revs.
John Sales and Joseph Oglesby, having been appointed to this circuit,
were here prospecting as to the probable future of the town, and laying
down the foundation principles of a spiritual city. These two heroic
men of precious memory were succeeded the following conference year,
which embraced a part of 1805 and 1806, by Revs. Banjamin Lakin and
Joshua Riggin. At the close of their term of service, which during this
period of the church was practically limited to one year, the name of this
circuit was changed from Miami to Whitewater Circuit, and Thomas
Heliums and Sela Paine were the preachers, with John Sale as presiding
elder, who continued on the district four years. To these two good men
succeeded, in 1807, Joseph Williams and Hezekiah Shaw, who were fol-
lowed, in 1808, by Hector Sanford and Moses Grume; and on the expira-
tion of their term of service, Samuel H. Thomson and Thomas Nelson
were appointed to the charge, and served one conference year, it being
a part of 1809 and 1810.
266 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
At this time there seeais to have been a general i-eorganization of the
work. The name of the district was changed from the Ohio, by which
it had been called from the beginning, except the first year, to the Miami
District, and Solomon Langdon, was appointed presiding elder, his
predecessor retiring by limitation of office; and the circuit appears to
have been so diminished in number of appointments that one man could
supply it, and accordingly Moses Grume was reappointed to the circuit
without an assistant, only one year having intervened between this and
his former appointments to this work.
At the close of his pastorate, which occurred in the fall of 1811, the
name of the circuit was again changed to Lawrenceburgh, and Walter
Griffith appointed to it. He was succeeded by William Dixon. And
then again, Moses Grume — as if he were peculiarly adapted to this
charge — was reappointed to the circuit, with Samuel Parker as presid-
ing elder. In the fall of 1814, at the close of Mr. Grume's third pastor-
ate, the eloquent John Strange was appointed to the circuit, and John
Sale to the district. These two Johns of remarkable talent were suc-
ceeded by David Sharpe as pastor, and Moses Grume as presiding elder.
The next year Russell Bigelow and Allen Wiley (two sons of thunder,
whose names will not soon be forgotton), were appointed to the circuit,
and the following year Allen Wiley was returned to the circuit, with
Samuel West as preacher in charge, this being the first time in which a
preacher was sent to this charge for the second year. John Sale was re-
appointed to tJie district in place of Moses Grume, who retired in the
fall of 1817, and who appears no more in the list of appointments for
this section of the church. Twice was he presiding elder on the Miami
District, and at three different times was he the pastor of the Meth-
odist people of this town and vicinity. The next conference year, which
embraced a part of 1818 and 1819, Benjamin Lawrence traveled the cir-
cuit alone, and the following year he was reappointed, with Henry F.
Fernandes, junior preacher, John Sales continuing on the district.
Up to this time the Methodists of Lawrenceburgh were unable to
own a church building, and had been obliged to hold their meetings at
first in private dwellings and afterward in a log-schoolhouse that stood
on the court house common. But now that their members and financial
ability had attained to considerable strength it was proposed to build a
house of worship, and, accordingly, in the year 1821 the now old brick
church on Walnut Street, still standing, was founded, built and dedicated
to the worship of God. At ihls time the eloquent John P. Durbin, now
ex-missionary secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Ghurch, and James
Gollard were the preachers on the circuit, and Walter Griffith was pre-
siding elder. This was a time of joy and gladness to the Methodists of
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 267
Lawrenceburgh. Though this house was long since abandoned for a
more commodious one, to many who are yet living there are precious
memories clustering about this spot. Besides the blessings attending
the regular services of the place, this church was visited with many
extraordinary " refreshings from the presence of the Lord." In this
church was held the memorable revival of John Newland Moffatt.
In 1822 Henry Baker having been appointed to Lawrenceburgh Cir-
cuit, of course had charge of this church. In 1823 the memorable Will-
iam H. Raper, of Ohio, was appointed to the charge, and in 1824 re-
appointed, with John Jayne as junior preacher, Alexander Cummins
serving as presiding elder for these two years.
The name of the district was again changed in the fall of 1824, and
was now called the Madison District, and John Strange was appointed
presiding elder, and James Jones and Thomas S. Hitt to the circuit.
The following two years James L. Thompson was the preacher in charge,
and George Ransdell assistant for the second year; and these two were
succeeded by Allen Wiley and Daniel Newton. Allen Wiley was now
placed upon the district, where he remained four years, and Nehemiah
B. Griffith and Enoch G. Wood were appointed, in the fall of 1828, to
the circuit, the latter of whom has once since been the pastor of the
church in Lawrenceburgh, and is now (this centennial year) presiding
elder of Moore's Hill District, of which a prominent appointment is
Lawrenceburgh. How marvelously has the Lord preserved this veteran
of the cross! Since his first appointment to this charge to the present
time — a period of foi'ty-eight years — he has stood in the front ranks of
the hottest of the battle, and still is fresh and strong, bidding fair for
years of active service. In 1829 N. B. Griffith was appointed to the cir-
cuit, with Richard S. Robinson, assistant. John W. McReynolds and
Alfred J. Arrington were next appointed, and their successors were Joseph
Oglesby and John C. Smith. With this year (1832), Allen Wiley's
time on this district having expired, James Havens, the fearless pioneer of
Western Methodism, was appointed presiding elder, and Joseph Oglesby
and his colleague were returned to the circuit. After one year we find
Allen Wiley again on the district, where he remained three years; and
the former pastors were succeeded in 1833 by William M. Daily and
John Daniels, followed in 1834 by C. M. Holliday and Silas Rawson,
and these again in 1835 by Rodman, David Stiver and James V. Watson.
In 1836 Enoch G. Wood was reappointed to the district, and James
Jones and William B. Ross to Lawrenceburgh Circuit, and the following
year Mr. Jones was returned as preacher in charge, with Samuel T.Gillett
and Silas Rawson, assistants. This was the last year of Lawrenceburgh
Circuit, Lawrenceburofh having been ir the fall of 1838 constituted into
268 _ HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
a separate and independent charge, and distinguished as Lawrencebnrgh
Station. The first pastor under this arrangement was Joseph TarJiiugton,
now venerable with age but fresh and cheerful as in his youth. Brother
Tarkington was succeeded in 1839 bj^ Mr. B. Hibben, and in 1840 by
John C. Smith, and in 1841 and 1842 by Samuel T. Gillett.
In 1843 the name of the district was changed from Madison to Ris-
ing Sun District, and James Jones made presiding elder, and Rich-
ard S. Robinson pastor of Lawrencebnrgh Station. He was followed in
1844 by James Hill and in 1845 by A-ugustus Eddy. The district in
1846 was again called Lawrenceburgh, and Enoch G. Wood was
appointed to it, and Mr. Eddy was returned to Lawrenceburgh Church.
During the years of 1847 and 1848 this church was under the pastorate
of C. B. Davidson. The last two years marked a neW epoch in the
Methodism of Lawrenceburgh. Like the prophet's house, the old church
had become " too straight " for them, and the question of a more com-
modious one was forced upon the congregation.
The present church was built in 1847, and dedicated the same year
by Bishop Hamline, after whom it was named. Its first board of trustees
was composed of the following persons: Omer Tousey, George Tousey,
Levin B. Lewis, Jacob P. Dunn, Edward Tate, John Callahan and Will-
iam S. Durbin, and these being transferred from the trusteeship of the
old church on Walnut Street. The board of stewards regularly
appointed for this church were George Tousey, John Callahan, Wexham
West, J. H. Brower, Jacob P. Dunn and John Binegar. The class lead-
ers were Isaac Dunn, William S. Durbin, L. B. Lewis, E. G. Brown and
George Tousey. The succession of pastors and presiding elders since
the erection of the present church is as follows: In the fall of 1849,
Thomas H. Rucker was made pastor of Hamline Chapel, and John A.
Brouse, presiding elder. Mr. Rucker was succeeded the next two years
by F. C. Holliday, who is still in the effective work. In 1852 the latter
was appointed to the district, and James Crawford to Lawrenceburgh
Station, who was returned for the second year. He was succeeded by
Hiram Gilmore in 1854, and he in 1855 and 1856 by Enoch G. Wood;
Giles C. Smith being made presiding elder at the last date mentioned,
Enoch G. Wood was succeeded in 1857 and 1858 by Elijah D. Long.
During these two years under the ministry of Brother Long, the church
was blessed with an almost unbroken revival, of which much fruit
remains at the present day. For true piety and devotion to the work of
saving souls the church is seldom blessed with the equal of Brother
Long. His memory is precious. Thomas H. Lynch was appointed to
the district in 1859, and Francis A. Hester to the Lawrenceburgh Sta-
tion, and the following year Elijah D. Long was appointed to the dis-
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 269
trict, and F. A. Hester was returned to this charge. During the years
1861-62 the church had the pastoral care of John S. Tevis, and Sampson
Tincher was appointed to the district in the last year mentioned. In
1863 and 1864 William C. Ransdell was appointed to Hamline Chapel;
and it will be remembered that this was the last charge upon earth for
this young and promising minister of the gospel, for the Great Bishop,
that is above all bishops had appointed him to a higher service. Though
this beloved pastor died in the early part, of his second year, it may be
said to the credit of the church they continued to pay his salary in full
for the rest of the year, and meanwhile employed the ministerial services
of John Lewis to fill out his unexpired term. Francis A. Hester was again
appointed to this charge in 1865, and in 1866 reappointed, with Fer-
nandez C. Holliday, presiding elder. Brother Hester was succeeded the
following two years by John G. Chafee; James Lathrop on the district.
During the last year of Mr. Chafee's pastorate the present parson-
age property on High Street was purchased at a cost of $2,500. The
raising of this money was mostly due to the ladies of the church, to
whom, ever since, has been committed the necessary repairs and general
oversight of the parsonage. George P. Jenkins was appointed at Law-
renceburgh Station in 1869, and was reappointed in 1870 and in
1871. This was the first instance since 'the extension of the pastoral
term to three years in which any minister had been returned to this
charge for the third year. During the last date F. C. Holliday was
presiding elder of the district. To Mr. Jenkins the church of Lawrence-
burgh is indebted for the valuable historical matters which he has writ-
ten up and neatly recorded in the church record, and without which the
present history could scarcely have be'en written. This cost him
no inconsiderable amount of time and labor, for which the church owes
him a debt of gratitude. In the fall of 1872, R. D. Robinson was ap-
pointed to the presiding eldership of the district, and Sampson Tincher
was appointed to the Lawrenceburgh Station, and by reappointment was
continued in the charge for three years. These were three years of gen-
eral quiet in the church, but nothing of very special interest is recorded.
In 1878 the venerable Enoch G. Wood was appointed to the Moore's
Hill District, as it is now called, and reappointed in 1874-75; and in
the last year S. S. McMahan was appointed to the pastorate of Lawrence-
burgh Station.
Thus we have traced the ministerial appointments of the Methodist
Episcopal Church of Lawrenceburgh and vicinity, including the general
history of its progress through a period of seventy-five years — from the
beginning to the present centenial year. It will be observed that the
Methodist Church of this place has been blessed with the varied minis-
270 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
try of very able men, some of whom were or have become representative
men of the denomination. During the long period of seventy years,
with slight exception, the church has not been called to suffer from the
defection of any of its pastors; neither for the same length of time have
they suffered the loss of but one — William G. Ransdell — by death while
serving them. This we think worthy of recording as matter of gratitude
to God who preserveth the integrity of his workmen and in whose sight
their lives have been precious.
Precisely what iniliience this individual church has had on the sev-
eral generations of the people of the city and vicinity since its organi-
tion, and on the Methodism of the State, it is, of course, impossible to
say; but we may fairly presume that it has been very considerable.
Many hundreds, if not thousands, have been converted to God at its
altars, and many of these have been men of mark, not only as examples
of strong religious character and workmen in the church, but in business
circles as well. Some of them have gone out over the State and influenced
Methodism abroad, not a few of them being enrolled in the Methodist
Churches of Indianapolis. A few — and we are sorry to say so few —
have gone out from this church into the ministry. HoseaDurbin, whose
ministry was short, and perhaps two brothei's Mulfinger, are all that can
be remembered. While many who have been converted in this church
have not kept the faith, the great body of the membership have lived to
adorn Christian religion, and have died in the very gateways of Heaven.
Among the deceased standard bearers of the church who are still fresh
in the memories of the living may be mentioned Omer Tousey, Judge
Dunn, James Thomson, George Sheldon, William Brown, Ellis Brown,
Benjamin Stockman, Hamlet Sf)arks, Oliver Tousey, James Jones, D. S.
Major, Dr. William Tate, and many others whose names will long be
cherished for their exemplary lives and devotion to the church. And
here it would be\injust to omit reference to another large class of per-
sons to whom the church in Lawrenceburgh has been at all times deeply
indebted for both its temporal and spiritual prosperity. We refer to those
women who labored in the gospel, elect ladies who have been ready to
second and carry forward every good work. Many of this class whose
lives were eminently useful to the church on earth, are now serving in the
heavenly mansions; but there still remains a goodly number on whom
the spirit of the Lord rests, and who have a mind to work.
Though the Lawrenceburgh Methodist Episcopal Church still main-
tains its spirituality, it is at the present time, owing to the very large
emigx'ation of the English speaking population from this place, neither
so strong financially nor nvimerically as formerly, still it has a fair mem-
bership and congregation, and possesses financial ability equal to all its
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 271
necessities. As to the value of the Methodist Church property in Law-
renceburgh, the substantial church building on the corner of High and
Vine Streets is estimated at |12,000; and the parsonage on High Street
— a very good and commodious house — is estimated at $2,000. Upon
the whole perhaps no individual church in the State has enjoyed more
continued peace and prosperity, and exerted a deeper and wider influence
upon Christianity than the Methodist Episcopal Church of Lawrence-
burgh.
The Regular Baptist Church of Lawrencebwgh. — The con-
stitution of this church is said to have taken place in 1807. In the
absence of records only a brief sketch of it can be given. Dr. Ezra
Ferris located in the village in 1804. He was a young married man of
quite a liberal education for that time, and had been identified with the
Old Duck Creek Baptist Church in Hamilton County, Ohio, where he had,
as was generally termed, "exercised his gifts" in speaking. He was
zealous in the sect of religion he espoused, and was instrumental in the
organization into a church the several families in and about Lawrence-
burgh of the same denomination, among whom were several of the
Blasdells, who resided on Tanner's Creek, Timothy Davis, Charles
Brasher, and the Ferrises at Lawrenceburgh, Henry Hardin and wife, Ja-
cob Froman and wife, of Hardinsburgh, and a Mrs. Bonham, from near
Elizabethtown. These may not all have been members at the time of the
constitution of the church, but all were early and active members.
Thomas Townsend and wife, and a Mr. Foster were also early members.
Services were held at private residences at the various localities named
until about 1830, when Lawrenceburgh became the settled place for
holding services. That year the Presbyterian denomination completed
their church, toward the building of which the Baptists contributed
$300, and were to have the use of the building alternately or when the
Presbyterians were not using it. Subsequently the appropriation was
refunded, and the use of the church by the denomination under consid-
eration was discontinued. In 1845 the little brick house of worship lo-
cated on Center Street was erected. From the beginning up to the time
of Dr. Ferris' death in ] 857, he was regarded as the senior pastor of
the church and also frequently preached elsewhere in the county. Elder
Mathews and William Steele from Kentucky were for a period assistant
pastors to the Doctor. The venerable Dr. Bond occasionally officiated
prior to 1840, and in the latter year was made assistant pastor, and for
the succeeding decade occupied the pulpit for about one-half of the
time. From 1850 to 1857 he was away from the city, and in 1857, on
the death of Dr. Ferris, he became pastor of the church and served
until the close of the war, since which time the following named minis-
272 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
ters have occupied the pulpit: Dr. Bond (occasionally), Degarmore,
Meeks, Clancy, Earl, Hamline, Swaim, Loving, and Tinker. The mem-
bership of the church is now about seventy.
The First Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceburgh was organized
September 27, 1829, by Rev. Sylvester Scoville, with the following mem-
bership: Duncan Carmichael, Catherine Carmichael, William Archibald,
Betsey Archibald, Jacob Piatt, Mrs. Ann Runyan, Miss Margaret John-
son, Mrs. Jane E. Sparks, Mrs. Sarah Darragh, Mrs. Catherine L.
Pinckard, Mrs. Jane Clark Hageman, Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, Mrs.
Elizabeth Rice, the first nine being received on letter from other
churches, the remaining four on profession of their faith. The church
was reported to the Presbytery of Oxford, Ohio, and received under their
care October 2, 1829. The board of trustees was composed of Duncan
Carmichael, William B. Ewing, William Archibald, George H. Dunn and
Stephen Ludlow. In tlje early existence of the society, it had no church
building. Sometimes the congregation met at the court house, some-
times the doors of the old Methodist Chapel on Walnut Street were
opened to them. Another preaching place for this denomination was in a
building on the corner of Main and Short Streets. During the pastorate
of Mr, Scoville a church building was erected on the southwest side of
Short Street between William and Center, which was completed in 1830.
The Baptist congregation furnished a portion of the money ($300), to-
ward its building, for which they had certain rights and privileges —
the venerable Dr. Ferris occupying the pulpit one-half of the time, or
when the Presbyterians did not use it. Subsequently the appropriation,
made by the Baptists was refunded and their use of the building was
discontinued. September 26, 1838, the church resolved to be an inde-
pendent Presbyterian Church and remained disconnected with any Pres-
bytery until in 1841, when for a time it was in the Presbytery of Madi-
son (New School). It was again connected with the Presbytery of
Oxford, Ohio (Old School). Subsequently the Presbytery of White
Water was formed, with which it was placed. In 1846 a parsonage was
provided for the pastor. The following named ministers, and in the
order given, have been pastors of the church: Sylvester Scoville, 1829 to
February, 1832 (died in 1849); Alexander McFarlans, November, 1832,
one year (died in 1838); Charles Sturdevent, October, 1834, one year
and a half; Henry Ward Beech er. May, 1837, two and a quarter years;
J. A. Tiffany, December 26, 1839, one year; W. A. Smith, January 1,
1841, to May 24, 1848; W. H. Moore, July 1, 1849, one year; S. S.
Potter, November, 1850, a number of years; Geoi*ge I. Taylor, Augustus
Taylor, Joshua R. Mitchell, Charles H. Little, Samuel N. Wilson (up-
ward of ten years) and Mr. Thomas, the present incumbent. On the
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 273
site of the old church on Short Street stands a beautiful brick edifice,
which is ornamental and beautiful in style of architecture, and elegantly
furnished within, erected in 1882 and dedicated September 24, 1883,
with a sermon by Rev. Dr. Heckman, the Rev. Charles Little ofiSciating
in the evening. The building was erected at a cost of $10,768.
The following article appeared in the New York World of May 22,
1882 :
"Mr. Beecher baptized nineteen babies yesterday morning, the little
Christians behaving, with few exceptions, most admirably. In asking
for a collection for the Presbyterian Church at Lawrenceburgh, Ind., he
said that it was the church over which he was first settled as pastor.
'When I was twenty-three years old,' said Mr. Beecher, 'I went forth
knowing but very little, and having no grace of that knowledge except
that I knew I knew very little. My first stop was across the Ohio River,
opposite Cincinnati, where a hall had been opened with a view of forming
a New School Presbyterian Church, for I was then a Presbyterian, and
am still in everything except their Confession of Faith. I began to
preach there, however, and after preaching about a half-dozen Sundays
I was visited by a young woman about twenty-one or twenty-two years
old, named Martha Sawyer (that's not her name now, so you won't know
who it is), and I was invited to take charge of another church at Law-
renceburgh, Ind. She was, I believe, trusteee, deacon and treasurer of
the church; at any rate they had no other. She collected all the money
that was collected and they paid me about $150 a year and the American
Missionary Society made up the rest, [so that I had the munificent salary
of $450 a year. There I began my ministerial and pastoral life. There
was but one man in the church, and that was one too many. However,
here I began to learn. I don't know how, but here I learned for two
years and a little more, and then I was called to Indianapolis, where I
was for the two years preceding the time of my coming here. That lit-
tle brick church which would seat 100 or 150 persons was where I
preached my earliest sermons. When we had a communion I had to
go out and borrow a deacon and elder. That church remains. A photo-
graph has been taken of it and has been sent to me. I recognize every
brick in it. I was sexton of it as well as pastor. I swept it twice a
week; got lamps from the adjoining town and hung them upon the walls,
and bought oil and filled and trimmed them, and kept them trimmed; for
previous to that there had been no evening service. The church has
existed ever since, with various degrees of prosperity, but now they have
undertaken to baild for themselves a new church and I come to ask you
what you are going to do to help them.' The baskets were passed and
returned well filled."
274 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
The St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church of Laivrenceburgh. —
The first Roman Catholic congregation, of Lawrenceburgh, was
oro-anized in the year 18-40^ consisting of about fifteen families, among
which the following names take precedence, viz. : George Huschart, Peter
Werst, John Kimmel, Jacob Meier, Lewis Crusart, Anthony Schwartz
and Michael Long. At this time divine services were held in a
house in Newtown, belonging to Jesse Hunt, and occupied by a Catholic
family; about a year later in the house of George Huschart, and at times,
also, in the bouse of Michael Lang. The corner-stone of the first Catho-
lic Church was laid^on Walnut Street in 184:L The church was built of
rock, 40x60 feet in length, but was not completed until 1847, when it
was dedicated. During these years Lawrenceburgh was attended by
priests from the neighboring congregations, the first of whom was Eev.
Joseph Ferneding, who attended but a short time; it was next visited by
Rev. F. O'Eourke, and after him by Rev. A. Bennett till 1851, also by
Rev. M. Stahl and Rev. A. Carius. In 1851 the Rt. Rev. Bishop M. De
St. Palais, D. D., of Vincennes, gave it in charge of the Franciscan
Fathers of the St. John's Church, Cincinnati. Rev. G. Unterthiner,
Sigismund and Anselm Koch, O. S. F., who attended till the year 1859,
when it was transferred to the charge of Rev. Ig. Klein, resident pastor
of St. Nicholas (Pipe Creek), who regularly attended till the year 1866,
when by the appointment of the Right Reverend Bishop, Rev. Clement
Sheve became the first resident pastor of the place. Owing to the increase
of Catholic population. Father Sheve saw that a more spacious edifice was
required, and the present beautiful church of St. Lawrence, 50x115 feet,
erected on Walnut Street, near the place of the old church, is the result
of his ministry, and the fruit of his zeal and labors; he also built a fine
residency for the pastor, and a large schoolhouse. Compelled by loss
of health, he resigned in 1870 and left for Minnesota, where he died in
the spring of 1875. Rev. C. Sheve was succeeded by Rev. J. J. Dudden-
hausen, who remained until May 15, 1875, when he was transferred to
Trinity Church, Evansville, Ind., and with sincere feelings of regret his
parishioners saw him depart for his new scene of labor. He was suc-
ceeded by Rev. J. F. Souderman, the present incumbent. In connection
with the church are also several church societies. The membership of
the ladies' society is 205, and that of St. Lawrence Roman Catholic
Benevolent Society, 125. The parochial school is in charge of the
sisters of St. Francis; the number of children in attendance is about 200,
and the number of teachers, five.
The German Evangelical Zion Church of Laivrenceburgh was first
constituted October 3, 1847, under the name of German Evangelical Re-
formed Church of Lawrenceburgh, belonging to the Evangelical Re-
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 275
formed Synod of the United States. The constitution was signed by five
trustees, to-wit: Johann David Hauck, George Ross, Johann Reimer,
Lorenz Winter and Johann Siemantel. The small congregation held its
meetings at first in the Presbyterian Church, on Short Street, in 1848.
The members built a brick church on Walnut Street, 54x28. The upper
part of it was consecrated for divine service, and the basement was used
as a day school and parsonage. In 1862 a new constitution was voted.
In 1867 the congregation dissolved its connection with the Evangelical
Reformed Synod, and changed the name to German Evangelical Zion
Congregation of Lawrenceburgh, In 1867 a new and larger brick build-
ing, 75x42 feet, was erected. A steeple was raised 100 feet high, and a
bell hung in it. While the foundation was being laid, a number of the
members left the congregation, and established the Evangelical Lutheran
Church at Newtown. November 24, 1867, the building was ready to be
consecrated, and was named Evangelical Zion Church. In the same
year a parsonage was built by the side of the new and in front of the
old church, which was fitted up for a school-room and for weekly meet-
ings. All these buildings, costing about $14,000, are still used for the
same purpose. The congregation consists at present of 72 families.
Ever since the formation, the congregation generally had its own German
day school, which now numbers 110 scholars. The Sunday-school was
established in 1851, by Rev. Friedel and Mr. Johann David Hauck, and
numbers at present 160 scholars and 20 teachers. Associations in con-
nection with the church are: An association of the ladies, established
in 1858 with 63 members, numbers at present 81; the singing choir,
established in 1867 with 19 members, now numbers 45; an association
of men for church building, in 1867, with 21 members, now numbers
39; an association of young ladies, established in 1867 with 21 members,
numbers at present 27; an association of young men, established in 1871
with 11 members, now numbers 14; a sick aid society, established in
1862, which at present numbers only 14 members. The names of the
pastors of the congregation since 1847 are Revs. P. B. Madonlet, 1847-50;
A. H. Friedel, 1850-51; H. Straeter, 1851-52; A. Carrol, 1852-53; Casp.
Pluess, 1854-59; H. Lienstaedt, 1859-62; C. Betz, 1862-71; C. F.
Warth, 1871 to the present time.
The Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Chtwch of Neiv Laivrenceburgh.
— Until 1867 this religious body formed a part of the society now
known as the German Evangelical Zion Church of the city whose history
is given above. At this time a number of the members withdrew and
established the congregation under consideration. The corner-stone of
the Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church was laid in the year 1867,
and finished in 1869. The church is a brick building, 40x80 feet, has a
276 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
stone basement, and a tower 120 feet high, and cost upward of $16,000,
of which sum an outside debt remains. The building is located on the
corner of Main and Fourth Streets. The church has a membership of
34 families, a Sunday school with 70 children, a singing choir, with 24
members, a day school with 34 children at present. Its pastor, Thomas
H. Jaeger, who has served the congregation since October, 1875, is a
member of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio and other States.
The German Methodist Episcopal Church of Laiorenceburgh had its
origin in this wise: April 11, 1839, Rev. Adam Miller, pastor of Race
Street Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, preached to a congregation in Law-
renceburgh, for the first time, and, on the following months' services were
held every two weeks, by Rev. Dr. W. Nast, who, June 16 of that year,
ordained a class of 10 members, which was increased to 20 members
in the following two weeks. Of this class J. M. Hofer was appoint-
ed leader. Shortly after this a Sabbath-school of from 20 to 30
members was organized with 8 teachers. Services were held for a
time, until a church building was erected, in private houses, frequently
in the dwelling of J. M. Mul finger. In 1842 the first house of worship
was built, located on Market Street. In 1860 the present church edifice,
a substantial and commodious brick, located on Center Street near Wal-
nut, was erected, which is valued at $8,000. At first this charge was
connected with a circuit over which presided Rev. Juhn Kisling, preach-
er in charge. The first quarterly conference was held in 1843, by Rev.
C. W. Ruter, presiding elder. In 1845 the Lawrenceburgh charge be-
came a station, having then a membership of 40. The following
named ministers have been pastors of the church: John Kisling, G.\A.
Brennig, John Zwahlen, C. Wyttenbach, John Phetzing, John Geyer,
L. Heiss, John Bier, Jacob Rothweiler, Adolph Kartter, F. Schroeck,
C. Dierking, John Kisling, J. H. Koch, C. Schelper, F. Miller, L. C.
Lurker, A. Gerlach, C. Helwig, J. C. Wurster, J. Scheveinfurth, C.
Bertram, D. Volz, John Phetzing.
The Christian Church of Lawrenceburgh. — In the spring of 1876 the
Christian Church of Lawrenceburgh was organized by Rev. A. Elmore,
the outgrowth of an extensive revival at which upward of 100 were
taken into membership. The first officers of the church were J. R.Trisler,
James D. Willis, elders; Spencer West, Christopher Dailey, George
Morris and Boone Rice, deacons. A call was extended to Mr. Elmore
to become the pastor of the church, which was accepted.
On the corner of Elm and Center Streets is located a beautiful and
substantial brick church edifice, the property of this society, which was
completed and dedicated August 7, 1884, the sermon being preached by
elder F. D. Power of Washington, D. C.
\/
CITY OF LAWRENCEBUllGH. 277
Trinity (Protestant) Episcopal Church of Laivrenceburgh. —
Services of the church were first held in Lawrenceburgh on the feast of
Epiphany, January 6, 1840, when the Trinity parish was duly organ-
ized with but three commuaicants and but few others who knew any-
thing about the church. The first rector of the parish was the Rev. T.
C. Pitkin, who served one year and was succeeded by Rev. Charles
Prindle, who died at the close of the first year of his rectorship. About
this time the most active layman of the little band died, and two others
removed from the city, which caused a suspension of services until in
the fall of 1844, when services were resumed under the rectorship of Rev.
A. C. Treadway. Services were continued at different intervals until
June, 1856, when the last service by a clergyman of the church, of
which we have any account, was held. The present modest little brick
church^edifice on Walnut Street was erected and consecrated to the serv-
ice 'of God in 1854. Of the rectors serving the parish from the
time'Rev. Mr. Treadway severed his connection with it until 1856, the
records do not definitely treat, but among those officiating at baptisms
were Revs. T. B. Fairchild, John Trimble and E. C. Pattison. In 1874
services were again resumed by Rev. William H. Troop, who was sent a
missionary to the cities of Lawrenceburgh and Aurora. The meetings of
the parish at Lawrenceburgh were for a time held in the court house, the
church building having been occupied as a place of business. The
church was restored, and the first service held in it was on the sixteenth
Sunday after Trinity — September 20, 1874 — since which time services
have been continued and conducted by the following named rectors, who
have had charge of the two parishes: Revs. William H. Troop, 1874-75;
Thomas W. McLean, 1875 to 1878; Curtis P. Jones, Thomas K. Cole-
man, Benjamin T. Hall, David B. Ramsey, the latter (present rector)
taking charge July 15, 1884.
The first schoolhouse of the village was erected on the public or
court house square very early in its history. It was a log-building and
the first teachers in it were the Rev. Samuel Baldridge (a Presbyterian
minister, who was residing at Lawrenceburgh, and who from 1810 to
1814 worked as an itinerant missionary in the Whitewater Valley), and a
Mr. Fulton. In 1808, Mrs. Mary Lane, the wife of Hon. Amos Lane, a
woman of high culture and refinement, kept a school in Kentucky nearly
opposite Lawrenceburgh. In 1809 the Lane family moved to what was
called Tousytown on the Kentucky side of the river, just opposite the
city. At this point she opened a school, which increased to seventy
scholars, being patronized by the people of the surrounding country. In
2 ( 8 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
1814 the Lane family settled in Lawrenceburgh, and Mrs Lane for a
short time only taught in the log-building above mentioned. In
1813, Zenas Hill is remembered as the school teacher of the village.
The late Henry James, of Rising Sun, whose father settled at Lawrence-
burgh in 1808, said: " We remained there about two years, ditring
which time I attended school, which was taught by Dr. Ferris, an Irish-
man. He was an excellent teacher, and was afterward engaged to teach
in Rising Sun. Under his instruction my brothers and I studied Latin
and Gi'eek. " School was kept for a time in an old frame building that
stood on High Street, between Mary and Vine, nearly opposite the
Stevenson House; also in another house on the same side of High Street
just below AValnut. Samuel H. Dowden, a Virginian of intelligence.
and a Mrs. Stevenson, who afterward became the wife of Thomas Tou-
sey, are remembered as early teachers. The first schoolhouse erected in
New Lawrenceburgh was built prior to 1820, and stood on the same lot
on which the present one is located. After the completion of the old
Presbyterian Church in 1830, that stood on Short Street, the basement
story was a favorite place for holding school. In 1833, what was termed
through the newspapers as the "Lawrenceburgh High School," was
opened by Z. Casterline in this house of worship.
In 1841, the school trustees advertised in the city papers that the free
school of District No. Nine (including all that part of the township lying
east of Gray's Alley) would be open May 10. The school under the charge
of Mr. Bundy was to be kept in a room in Ferris' row on High Street,
and that under the care of Mrs. C. Morehouse, in the basement story of
the Presbyterian Church. The trustees then were J. H. Brown, William
Brown and John P. Dunn.
In 1851 there were two high schools in the city, namely: the 'Law-
renceburgh Academy, established by J. M. Rail, assisted by Miss Parme-
lia Fahr, and the Lawrenceburgh Institute, established under the super-
vision of trustees, with Edward Cooper, A. M., principal. In addition to
these there were in the city a select school held in the basement of the
Presbyterian Church under the direction of Miss and Mrs. Potter ; a
middle district school taught by Mrs. Wardell; the Newtown District,
Elmerdorf and District No. Ten, Germantown, taught by John D. White;
there were also two German schools on Walnut Street, one German
Catholic taught by John F. Herwig, and the other both Catholic and
Protestant, taught by Jacob Behmar. From 1840 to 1856 the following
named were among those who taught in the basement of the Presbyterian
Church: John M. Wilson, Dr. Potter, John D. White and J. M.Olcott.
The following sketch of the Lawrenceburgh public schools appeared
in one of the county papers in 1876:
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 279
" The Lawreuceburgh graded schools were organized and established
the 15th day of November, 1856, by Omer Tousey, John Anderegg and
Samuel Morrison, board of school trustees, and Norval Sparks, clerk;
J. M. Olcott. superintendent; D. H. Pennewell, assistant superintendent;
Mrs. Hubbel, Mrs. Brasher, Miss Yeatman and Miss Brower, teachers.
Number of children attending public schools in the city, 250; number of
children between the ages of five and twenty-one years in the township,
1,294. The high school building was erected in the year 1859, by the
township trustee, Mr. William Tate, and completed by his successor in
office, Mr. John Ferris. In the year 1865, by and in pursuance of an
act of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, the control and
management of the city schools was transferred from the township trus-
tee to a school board of trustees consisting of three persons, president,
secretary and treasurer, to be elected by the council of the city of
Lawrenceburgh. The following named persons have been elected and
acted in that capacity: Levin B. Lewis, John H. Gaff, Andrew A. Heifer,
Andrew J. Pusey, William M. James, Noah S. Givan and John K.
Thompson. The present board is George Otto, president; Dr. Charles
B. Miller, treasurer; Thomas Kilner, secretary. At no time in the
history of the schools have they been in as good condition financially as
at the present time. At the expiration of the present school year, there
will remain, and unexpended, the sum of $4,979.84. It is the desire of
the present board of trustees, with the consent and approval of the
patrons of the schools, to make some radical changes therein, whereby
they may become more efficient and beneficial. There is annually
expended by the board for school purposes, $10,000. The school prop-
erty consists of two large brick buildings; one situated on the corner of
Short and Market Streets, surrounded by a beautiful park with fine play
ground for the children, and the other on the corner of Shipping and
Fourth Streets, a building erected in 1870 — the grounds have been
ornamented during the present year by shade trees. The buildings are
supplied with charts, globes, chemical and philosophical apparatus,
skeleton, etc., to which additions are being constantly made, and every
facility afforded to make the school efficient and the equal of any in the
State. The real estate and buildings are valued at $30,000; value of
scientific apparatus, $550; value of library, $100. Corps of instructors
at the present time: John R. Trisler, superintendent; William F. Gil-
christ, principal; Miss Josie M. Brand, Miss Sallie B. Marsh, Miss
Emma C. Hauck, Miss Emma L. Pusey, Miss Mary Hopping, Miss
Carrie H. Rowe, Miss Fannie Pierce, Miss Katie Ferris, Miss Annie S.
Hayes, Miss Esther L. Avery, teachers; Mr. A. S. Teutschel and F. J.
Kalmerten, German teachers; Prof. Emil A. Roehrig, vocal music:
280 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Joseph White, janitor; Margaret Brown, janitresg. The average monthly
salary of teachers, exclusive of superintendent, is $50.60. Number of
pupils enrolled in the school, 650; number of children enumerated in
the city between six arid twenty-one years, 1,951."
In 1883 the enumeration of children in the schools was 1,749. Now
the Lawrenceburgh Public Schools embrace five departments, viz.: I, En-
glish primary; II, English grammar; III, German primary; IV, German
grammar; V, High School.
The English primary department includes the first four years of
school training. It takes pupils at the beginning, and leaves them fair
spellers, readers and writers, and gives them a knowledge of the four
fundamental principles of arithmetic. In this department lessons also
are given in language, physiology, geography, music and drawing — thus
making it the aim of this department to thoroughly prepare the pupil to
advance to the grammar department, and at the same time to furnish him
with that training that will be most useful in life, should his training
end with this department.
The English grammar department includes the next four years of the
course, or from fifth year to the eighth inclusive. Its object is to receive
pupils who have completed the foregoing department, or its equivalent,
and to give them such drill as shall make them proficient in spelling,
reading, penmanship, arithmetic, geography, grammar, physiology.
United States history, vocal music, drawing and composition, and to best
fit the pupil to enter the high school, or to discontinue school life, if
compelled to do so.
The German department, as created by the liberality of the school
board, and provided with the proper teachers in the years from 1878-
1881, proved to be a success. The floods of 1882, 1883 and 1884, and
the subsequent diminution of population, as well as a certain indiffer-
ence and shortsightedness of a number of parents, preferring rather to
withdraw their children from the advanced classes of this department
than to let them have the benefit of a better education, caused the dis-
continuance, in 1884, of the seventh and eighth year, corresponding with
the advanced classes of A and B, grammar grade. For the benefit of
this department and its further progress, the restoration of these grades
will be essentially necessary. Parents should, under no circumstances,
allow children to quit school until at least the ninth school year is
reached, and thus help to fill up this grade again with as many pupils
as are necessary to justify the board in sustaining and paying another
teacher. The departments comprise as complete a course in the German
language and literatiire as is practicable, and at the same time the same
instructions that are given in English, in the corresponding English de-
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 281
partments, are given in these departments. The fact that the teachers
in the German grades are native German, or are of immediate German
descent, greatly facilitates the work. The entire German work is also
placed under the supervision of a skillful teacher, trained in the best
German schools.
High School. — The general public recognize the High School as an
indispensable part of the public school system, and hence not only cheer-
fully support it, but demand its existence. Without the high school aa
a goal for the brighter or more ambitious pupils of the lower departments,
our school system would lose much of its valuable influence upon the
community. The greatest good derived from the schools is their influ-
ence upon the character of the pupil. The cultivation of will power, or
that which determines character, begun in the lower grades, is carried on
more effectively in the high school; for the pupil is more mature, and
can be led to see the neccessity of the power of self control. That it is
one of the duties of the State to provide the means for higher culture must
be recognized by all who have any adequate knowledge of the State and
its relation to the individual; the branches taught have already been
enumerated, and are such, if completed, to qualify the pupil to enter the
freshman class of the State University or Purdue University. And in
view of this fact the State board of education has commissioned the Law-
renceburgh High School to pass its graduates, without further examination,
to the freshman class of either Purdue or the State University.
School Board. — R. Walter, president.
F. R. Dorman, secretary.
Dr. C. M. Miller, treasurer.
Instructors. — T. V. Dodd, superintendent, and teacher of the senior
class.
W. H. Rucker, principal of the high school — ninth and tenth years.
Julia W. Rabb, special teacher of grammar in grammar department,
and principal of eighth year.
Emma Brogan, special teacher of reading in grammar department,
and principal of seventh year.
Mary E. Pusey, special teacher of geography in grammar department,
and principal of sixth year.
Nettie Van Ness, special teacher of arithmetic in grammar depart-
ment, and principal of fifth year.
, teacher in A primary grade, fourth year.
Pauline Berkshire, teacher in B primary grade, third year.
Retta Brodbeck, teacher in C primary grade, second year.
Nettie Akers, teacher in D primary grade, first year.
Carrie Goyer, teacher in C and D primary grades first and second
years.
282 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Jennie Huff, assistant teacher in D primary grade.
J. R. Kuhlman, superintendent of German; teacher in German gram-
mar department.
Alice Schleicher, teacher in German primary department, third and
fourth years.
Anna Sembach, teacher in German primary department, first and
second years.
Matilda Hoffrogge, teacher in German primary department, first and
second years.
E. A. Roehrig, teacher of music and penmanship.
Wash Howard, Oldtown, and Mrs. Flush, Newtown, janitors.
BOLL OF ALLUMNI.
1872— Fannie Pierce, Mary E. Banyard, Emma C. Hauck, E. D.
Freeman, Carrie H, (Rowe) McCormick.
1876 — Mary (Jones) Ross, Mary Pusey, Lizzie (Savage) Brenkert,
Edward T. Mader.
1877— Tina Pusey,* Emma Blair, Robert Colt, Fred Ferger.
1878 — Tillie Israel, Alice Schleicher, Lewis B. Danniel, H. Lee
Early, Collins Fitch, Warren Hauck, George Schroeder.
1879 — Mary Akers,* Olivia Broadwell, Emma Brogan, Julia Stock-
man, Cora Bainbridge, Fred Everhart.
1880 — Bessie Hunter, Edward S. Smashea, Rell M. Woodward,
1881 — Tecumseh Meek, Joshua Terrill, George Terrill, Nettie Akers,
May Stockman, Retta Brodbeck, Kora Thomas, Pauline^ Berkshire, Al-
lie Snider, Nannie Terrill.
1882— Ritta Dunlevy, Nettie A. Duck,* Belle Garner, Emma
Schleicher, Lizzie Pusey, George L. Gatch, Mary Emmert.
1883— Ada Fitch, Anna A. Sembach, Flora M. Walter, Carrie D.
Schleicher, Lillie St. C. Rooke, Lillie M. Fichter.
1884 — Lulu Smashea, Julia Akers, Mattie Freeman, Tillie Schwartz,
Louisa Howard, Mary Murnan, J. F. Tilley.
1885— Ella Squibb, Martin Givan, William Miller, Jennie Huff,
Nettie Burk, Stella Fisher, Louisa Decker, Curtie Hodell, Albert Geisert.
LEADING MANUFACTURING INTERESTS, f
In the foregoing sketch of the earlier village and town, the business
interests and lesser industries have been referred to in a general way,
•Deceased
tThe census of 1880 showed that the sixteen productive establishments of industries of the city,
with a capital of $1,350,000 invested, produced manufactured articles to the value of SI, 895,952 during
the census year, for which 8290,967 was paid for wages. In this calculation only those tactories that
produced articles over the value of 8500 were considered.
CITY OF LAWRENCEBUKGH. 283
and it is our purpose here to treat more specifically of the various
manufacturing interests which have been the means of developing the
slow and quiet village and town of three-quarters of a century ago into
the bustling manufacturing center of the past decade, with its numerous
distilleries, immense furniture factories, cigar factories, cooper shops,
flouring-mills, saw and planing-mills, breweries, woolen-mill, stove
foundry, coffin factory, with the cluster of minor mills and factories
which have been dotted over its surface and given employment to thous-
ands of men, women and children.
Flouring Mills. — The first merchant flouring-mill in Lawrenceburgh
was built in 1837, by Mr. E. D. John. The building is still in exist-
ence, and is situated on the canal basin, and now used by Mr. R. Duck
for a saw-mill. Mr. John erected the building for a pork house, but
when completed concluded to convert it into a flouring-mill, with four
pairs of buhrs, or stones, and all other requisite machinery for the man-
ufacture of flour. When completed he sold one-half the mill, in 1838,
to Dr. C. G. W. Comegys, now of Cincinnati, who soon afterward added
four more pairs of buhrs and a corresponding amount of other machinery,
so that they then had a capacity for the daily manufacture of 300 bar-
rels of flour. These mills were called the Miami Mills, and in a few
years this brand of flour became noted for its excellence, not only in
the United States, but in the West India Islands and South American
ports. It was said of it that it would remain sweet for months in trop-
ical climates while other brands would sour. In 1840 Dr. Comegys pur-
chased Mr. John's interest in the mills, and subsequently added a dis-
tillery, placing it in the same building with the flouring business. The
Doctor connected both the flouring and whisky business for a season or
two, when he sold out to Messrs. Bar & Febiger, two gentlemen from
W^ilmington, Del., who prosecuted the business until 1848. In 1847
Milton Gregg erected a large building a few feet south of the above-
named mills, in one end of which he placed machinery for crushing flax
seed; in other words, an oil-mill. In the other part of the building he
placed a flouring-mill and machinery, with three run of stones, with a ca-
pacity for manufacturing 100 barrels of flour daily. This flouring-mill
and machinery he leased to Lewis & Eichelberger for ten years, at a
rental of $1,000 per year, but before the termination of one year he sold
the mill to Lewis & Eichelberger, and in a few months after the sale
both oil-mill and flour-mill were consumed by fire. This occurred in
the spring of 1848. Lewis & Eichelberger did not rebuild, but at once
purchased the Miami Mills and distillery. The latter they sold to the
Messrs. Gaflf, who removed the machinery to Aurora. Lewis & Eichel-
berger continued to operate the Miami Mills till 1852, when the floods
28-4 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
of that year swept off the great dam at Harrison, and otherwise dam-
aged the canal so that it was confidently asserted and believed it would
never be repaired. Lewis & Eichelberger, despairing of ever obtaining
water to propel their machinery, set to work to build the large steam
mill on High Street, which they completed in 1853, at a cost exceeding
$25,000. The architects, or millwrights, were resident citizens — Messrs.
A. J. Pusey and William Probasco. In the meantime, the canal company
had made a loan of money and repaired the canal, so that now Lewis &
Eichelberger had a steam-mill with a capacity of 350 barrels, and water-
mills of 300 barrels per day. They continued to operate the water-mills
until the canal was utterly destroyed and abandoned, and continued to
operate the steam-mill, which they afterward called the Miami Mills, up
to the winter of 1870, when they were sold to Messrs. Roots & Co., of
Cincinnati. The firm of Lewis & Eichelberger was formed in the spring
of 1847, and dissolved in the month of December, 1870, nearly twenty-
three years, in which time, it is estimated, over 2,000,000 barrels of flour
were manufactured by them, and the money paid out by the firm for
grain, cooperage and labor exceeds $8,000,000. The mill, under the pres-
ent management of Messrs. Roots & Co., has been enlarged and furnished
with latest improved machinery for manufacturing purposes. It is a
model mill in every respect, with a capacity of annually manufacturing
90,000 barrels. The firm manufacture the finest grade of flour, that has
an established reputation throughout the various States.
The large frame grist-mill known as the Walnut Street Mills, located
at the end of that street going to Newtown, was built in 1882, by Snyder
Brothers & Co., but now operated by John Snyder & Sons. The mill is
the property of George Beckenholdt. It has a capacity of 225 bushels
per day (twelve hours). It is equipped with improved machinery and is
valued at $10,000.
The Manufacture of Distilled Liquors. — For half a century the city,
in this branch of industry, has been famous, not only the city but the
county. This city is the headquarters of the district, the office having
been again located here in June, 1885, the collector being W. D. H. Hun-
ter. The district in 1880 comprised the counties of Dearborn, Decatur,
Franklin, Jefferson, Ohio, Jennings, Ripley and Switzerland. The total
amount of revenue collected in the district for the fiscal year ending
April 30, 1880, was $3,283,991.01 of which $3,259,771.87 was collected
at the offices in Dearborn County, more than twenty-four twenty-fifths of
the entire revenue collected in the district. There are located in the
county seven distilleries, namely: four at Lawrenceburgh, two at Harri-
son, and one at Aurora. It is stated that the firm of T. & J. W\ Gaff &
Co., of Aurora, during fifteen days in February, 1875, paid as revenue
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 285
tax the sura of $120,000. From the 13th to the 20th of that month their
orders for whisky amounted to 2,820 barrels at an average price of $50
per barrel, or $141,000 for the entire amount ordered. A gentleman who
for years was connected with the internal revenue office at this point, in
speaking of the distilleries of the city, remarked that "it is impossible to
give the varying capacity of the distilleries during all their histories, but
it may be safely said they have made enough whisky to float a navy or
flood a city. Since the tax went on they have paid over $30,000,000 to
the government." Two principal causes make this a good distilling
point. The transportation facilities are good, and the water is clear, in-
exhaustable and cold, a very important matter in the business.
The first distillery for the manufacture of distilled liquors was estab-
lished by Dann & Ludlow, in the year 1809, and was located near the
present site of the Squibb & Co.'s distillery. The motive power was fur-
nished by an unfortunate blind horse, and if there was no unavoidable
delay, they succeeded in manufacturing two barrels per week, without
the aid of lynx-eyed revenue officials, and when it was finished it was
straight, nothing crooked there; whisky rings with their corruptions and
perjuries were unknown to the honest pioneer. The next one was
established in 1821 by Harris Fitch & Co., on Wilson Creek, on the land
of Page Cheek, and for a number of years there was not a great deal
done in this branch of manufacturing, that of later years has grown so
extensive, and given to our city and county a world wide reputation for the
quantity and quality manufactured. In the year 1836, Mr. Amaziah P. Hobbs
erected the first distillery run by steam-power, with a capacity of mashing
600 bushels per day. In the year 1839, it was destroyed by fire, and
rebuilt by Hobbs & Craft, and was again destroyed by fire in the year
1850, and was never rebuilt. Its location was just below the present
Glenwood malthouse, the frame part of which was a part of their malt-
house. In 1847, Peter Robbins erected what was known as the "Little
Dinkey," with a capacity of 150 bushels per day. Mr. Robbins sold to
Andy Morgan, who during the war was joined by E. G. Hayes and they
operated it until about 1864. In 1847 or 1848, George Ross, Antony
Swartz and Gid Benner built the Rossville distillery, subsequently owned
by John B. Garnier and E. B. Dobell, with a capacity of 600 bashels per
day. Since that date there have been several erected which will appear
in their regular order; and there is no interest that has done more to
build up the trade of the city and county than this one.
The John H. Gaff & Co. Distillery.— lu the year 1851 Jabez L.
Owenby, J. Anson Marshall and Jacob B. Shepperd, erected the buildings
subsequently owned by John H. Gaff & Co. , for the purpose of the man-
ufacture of high wines, alchohol and Bourbon whiskies. One year later
286 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
this firm changed to Bradley, Marshall & Blasdel, who ran it two years
and sold to James Gaflf, Marshall still retaining an interest. Gaff &
Marshall added thereto the manufacture of flour, and the business was
continued under that firm name until the year 1863, when Mr. Marshall
retired, and the firm was changed to Gaff & Co. la the year 1869,
another change occurred, and the firm was John H. Gaff & Co., who
operated it until 1879, when it was sold to N. J. Walsh.
The building for manufacturing purposes was located in New Law-
renceburgh, fronting on Shipping Street, and extending back to Tanner's
Creek. It was built of frame, with a capacity of mashing 900 bushels
of grain per day, producing 3,500 gallons of proof spirits. There is a
brick fire-proof bonded warehouse, 100x40 feet, two stories high; also a
malt-house 70x50 feet, with a capacity of malting sixty bushels of grain
per day. They had cattle pens with a capacity of stalling 1,200 head of
cattle, and hog pens for 3,000 head. This firm gave employment to
over thirty persons, and paid out annually for labor over $16,000, and
when the distillery was run at its full capacity, the General Government
would realize a revenue tax upon the goods manufactured, of nearly
$1,000,000. This firm manufactured cologne and French spirits, alco-
hol, high wines and Bourbon whiskies. The principal points of trade
for the sale of goods manufactured were Cincinnati, New York, Balti-
more, Boston, San Francisco and Marseilles, France.
The distillery burned on the night of August 27, 1885 — the property
of N. J. Walsh. It had been idle for several years.
William P. Squibb & Co., Registered Distillery, No. 8. — In the year
1868, Mr. Kosmos Frederick purchased grounds and proceeded to erect
buildings for the purpose of distilling Bourbon whiskies and high wines»
The same are situated in what is known as the town of Greendale, front-
ing on the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette Railroad, and extend-
ing back to Tanner's Creek. Before the completion of the building he
formed a partnership with Messrs. William P. and George W. Squibb,
and in January 1869, they commenced operations. September 1,-
1871, Mr. Frederick sold out his interest to the Squibb Brothers, who
proceeded to enlarge the buildings and the capacity for manufacturing
purposes. The buildings are built of brick, 20x200 feet in length, with
an L extending back forty feet, three stories in height, with a capacity
of mashing 330 bushels of grain per day, producing 1,260 proof gallons
of spirits. There is a brick warehouse, fire-proof, 40x100 feet, and
they have recently erected a brick building for the purpose of continuous
distillation, to be used in the manufacture of alcohol, cologne spirits and
Bourbon whiskies, with cattle and hog pens sufficient for all the stock.
The value of the buildings and real estate is $30,000. This firm gives
CITi' OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 287
employment to fifteen persons and pays out annually for labor over
$6,000, and for articles to be used in the process of manufacturing
$71,000, and pays annually to the General Government for revenue tax
over $300,000. The value of the manufactured goods, exclusive of tax, is
over $75,000, and the value of the stock fattened on the slop, $40,000.
The principal points for the sale of the goods of this firm are Cincinnati,
Louisville and St. Louis. The members of the firm are active business
men, and are known in business circles for their promptness and relia-
bility.
N. J. Walshes Registered Distillery, No. 7. — The old Rossville dis
tillery was built in 1847 by George Ross, Gid Renner and Antony
Swartz, and they ran it till Ross' death. Rittenhouse & Shroyer after-
wai-d operated it, and E. G. Hayes and William Probasco were operating
it during the war, when the tax was put on and made them rich. About
1868 E. B. Bradford ran it for about a year or so, and afterward Smith
Fowler ran it in the name of J. S. Smith, and Alf Phillips succeeded
them. In 1877 N. J. Walsh bought it and retains it, though it has been
entirely rebuilt and is perhaps the finest distillery property in the
country — the great warehouses and all the buildings being of the beet
brick, and the machinery the latest and best improved. It has a capacity
of mashing 2,100 bushels of grain per day. The feeding pens for
cattle will accommodate 1,500 head, and the warerooms have a capacity
of storing 25,000 barrels of liquor.
The Nicholas Oester Registered Distilling, No. 9. — In the year 1875,
Mr. Kosmus Frederick, purchased grounds and erected buildings for
the purpose of manufacturing high wines and Bourbon whiskies. After
a year or two,^he sold out to the present proprietor. The buildings front
on Ridge Avenue, Greendale, 103x53 feet, four stories high, built of frame,
with a brick warehouse 20x20 feet, and three stories high; a fermenting
house 25x72 feet, and cattle and hog pens sufficient for all stock. The
capacity of the building is for mashing 400 bushels of grain per day, pro-
ducing 1,600 proof gallons of spirits. The value of the building and real
estate is $30,000. When run to its full capacity, it will give employment
to twelve persons, and require an annual expenditure for labor of over $7,-
000, and for materials to be used in the process of manufacture of over
$80,000, and will pay a revenue tax to the General Government of $400,-
000. The value of the manufactured goods, exclusive of the tax, is over
$100,000, and the value of stock fattened on slop $50,000.
The Frederick Rodenhurg & Co. Registered Distillery, No. 12 is located
on Tanner's Creek near the bridge, the main building being a large frame
three stories high. The business was established in 1880, by Fred
Rodenburg, at a cost of about $15,000. Other members of the firm are
288 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Christ Rodenburg and Charles Aring. Eight men are employed, and
the distillery has a capacity of mashing 310 bushels of grain per day.
High wines and Boarbon whisky are distilled here.
The Brewery Business. — The first brewery for the manufacture of
beer was established by George Ross, in the year 1845, in the building
known as the Old Cotton Mill, on the ground where the Wheel Company
is at the present time, with a capacity of manufacturing twenty barrels
per day. In the year 1850, Kosmos Frederick built the brewery now
owned by J. J. Hauck, which remains unemployed. In the year 1855,
Mr. John B. Gamier erected a small brewery fronting on Shipping Street,
with a capacity for manufacturing ten barrels per day, which he con-
tinued to operate for nearly two years, when the business had increased to
such an extent, that he was compelled to have larger capacity, and he
purchased the brewery erected by Cosmos Frederick, and continued
there until 1866, then sold to Hauck & Gebhard. He at once commenced
to erect the large building on the corner of Third and Shipping Streets.
The building for manufacturing purposes is 100x100 feet, two and a half
stories high, with three lager beer cellars, 100x17 feet, and sixteen feet
high, with malting rooms, with a capacity for malting 150 bushels of
grain per day. The capacity of the brewery is fifty barrels per day. The
brewery gives employment to twelve or fifteen persons, and pays out
annually for labor $10,000, and for materials to be used in the process of
manufacturing, the sum of $70,000, and if run at its full capacity, the
General Government would realize a revenue tax of over $15,000. The
trade is confined to the State of Indiana. The value of real estate and
surrounding property is $50,000. Mr. John B. Garnier is a native of
France. When he arrived in this country he was without any means, and
commenced without any capital, but by his industry and economy, has
become one of our wealthiest citizens.
The Edwin B. Dobell Furniture Factory. — In the year 1863, Mr. E.
B. Dobell, who had been extensively engaged in the manufacture of fur-
niture in the city of Cincinnati, and his factory having been destroyed
by fire, purchased from Elzy G. Burkam and Joseph H. Burkam, the
furniture factory located in Greendale, which was built by Brown &
Tate, the original pioneers of the manufacturing of furniture for the
wholesale trade in our city. He paid for said property the sum of
$22,000, and proceeded to the manufacture of a general line of furni-
ture, making a specialty of bureaus, washstands, extension tables and
bedroom suites. By strict attention to business, he soon succeeded in
building up an extensive trade throughout the various States.
During the month of May, 1873, his extensive manufactory was
destroyed by fire, whereby he'sustained a loss of $45,000. With his
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 289
usual energy he at once proceeded to repair the damage, and in less than
three months the buildings were erected, stocked with machinery and in
working order. The building is 60x100 feet, four stories high, built of
brick, with an iron roof. Surrounded by his extensive lumber yards, the
factory building, residence and real estate are valued at $30,000. He
employs from seventy to seventy-five persons in the various departments,
and expends annually for labor over $35,000, and for material to be used
in the manufacture the sum of 125,000; the value of the goods manu-
factured is over $100,000. There is constantly on hand a large stock of
manufactured goods, and in his yard a stock -of seasoned lumber, from
500,000 to 750,000 feet. The principal points of the trade of this firm
ai*e in the South and West, extending as far south as Florida, and west
as California, and embracing all the territories. The entire management
of the business in all its departments is under the supervision and con-
trol of Mr. E. B. Dobell, who is known as one of our most enterprising
and upright business men.
The Lawrencehurgh Furniture Manufacturing Company was organ-
ized February 13, 1868, by Christ Lommel, Charles Schnell, Conrad
Sander, John C. Brand, Fred Klienhans, George Fi-eyn, Adam Kastner
and Fred. Rodenberg, with a capital stock of $7,000. At the annual
meeting of stockholders, February 13, 1869, was increased to $13,000;
March 5, 1870, to $15,000; April 1, 1871, to $22,700; February 21,
1872, to $33,100; December 31, 1872, to $43,300; January 13,
1874, to $58,150; in January, 1875, to $59,400; and in January, 1876,
it was increased lo $63,250, which is the capital stock at this date.
The establishment was incorporated under the laws of the State, with C.
Sander, as president; C. Lommel, secretary and treasurer, and F. Klein-
hans, as foreman of the factory. The management has not materially
changed. The building for manufacturing purposes, corner Main and
Second Streets, New Lawrencehurgh, is built partly of brick and frame;
is 40x100 feet, two stories high, with a basement, supplied with the
most improved machinery, and run by steam-power.
The warerooms "are situated on the corner of Short and Centre Streets,
Lawrencehurgh, are built of brick, 41x118, three stories high and a
basement. The buildings, real estate and machinery ai-e valued at
$28,000. The firm gives employment to from seventy fo eighty persons,
and pays out annually for labor $40,000, and expends for materials
$45,000, and the value of the manufactured goods are over $100,000,
and carry a stock of seasoned lumber from 800,000 to 900,000 feet, and
have constantly on hand a large stock of manufactured goods. The
specialty of the firm are bureaus, washstands, bedsteads, dressing-case
suites, and bedroom suites. The principal points of trade are in the West-
17
290 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
ern and Southern States, with some sales in the Eastern States. The
business of the firm is constantly on the increase, and their goods manu-
factured have a reputation the equal of any in the West, and the busi-
ness characters of the members of the firm are well established for prompt
and correct dealing.
The Miami Valley Furniture Manufacturing Company. — On the 24th
day of March, 1868, George Hodel, Jr., John Christena, Henry F.
Wencke, Adam Schleicher, George Schleicher, Gustave Schoenberger, Her-
man H. Woehle, John F. Sembach, Philip Dexheimer, George Hodel, Sr.,
Johann J. Haack, Samuel Dickenson, John Bookster, Levin B. Lewis
and Alexander Beckman, formed themselves into an association to be gov-
erned in pursuance of the provisions of an act of the General Assembly
of the State of Indiana, approved May 20, 1852, and the acts amendatory
thereof; the association to be known by the title of the Miami Valley
Furniture Manufacturing Company; the capital stock $20,000. The
existence of the company was to be for fifty years ; the object of the com-
pany was the manufacturing of a general line of furniture.
The officers of the company were as follows: George Hodel, Jr., pres-
ident; Harris Bateman, secretary; Levin B. Lewis, treasurer. Directors:
George Hodel, Jr., John Christena, Henry F. Wenke, Adam Schlicher,
Levin B. Lewis, Johann J. Hauck and Gustave Shoenberger. The com-
pany proceeded at once to erect their buildings on their grounds, situated
on High Street, between Charlotte and Maple Streets. The building for
manufacturing purposes is 70x80 feet, four stories high, stocked with all
the latest improved machinery and run by steam power. The warehouse
is 34x150 feet and four stories high. At the annual meeting of the stock-
holders, January 4, 1870. on account of the increase of the business, it
was ordered that the capital stock be increased to $40,000; at the annual
meeting on the 3d day of January, 1871, it was increased to $60,000; at
the annual meeting, January 8, 1872, it was increased to $75,000; at the
an Dual meeting, January 6, 1873, it was increased to $82 500; at the
annual meeting, January 6, 1874, it was increased to $100,000, which is
the capital at the present time. The company gives employment to about
sixty-five persons, and pays out annually, for labor, the sum of $42,000. The
real estate is valued at $25,000, and carries a stock of lumber from 750,-
000 to 1,000,000 feet; and annually pays out for material for manufac-
turing pui'poses over $40,000. The annual sales of manufactured articles
is over $100,000. The increase and extent of the business has exceeded
the most sanguine expectations of the incorporators, owing to the admir-
able management of its officers. During its existence it has paid to the
stockholders over 150 per cent of dividends.
The quality of the furniture manufactured by this firm defies competi-
CITY OF LAWRENCEBDRGH. 291
tion; its trade extends over the Eastern, Western and Southern States, and
large quantities are shipped direct to the Canadas. And owing to the
safe and prudent management of its financial department by its young
and enterprising president, Mr. George Hodel, Jr., who has annually
been elected to that position from its organization, the company has
never been compelled to ask an extension of time, but at all times was
prepared to promptly meet its liabilities. The management has not
materially changed since the beginning; the former secretary, Harris
Bateman, died in 1873, when C. M. Pritchard succeeded him to that oflfice.
The Ohio Valley Coffin Company. — January 27, 1872, Timothy E.
Scobey, George Hodel, Jr., Israel Crist, Charles Decker, James C. Mar-
tin, Joseph McGranahan, Charles B. Burkam, Charles Lommel, James
E. Larimer, John Dorr, Henry Fritz, Thomas Freeman, Washington
Howard, Julius Israel, Loyd S. Isdell, Christian Knoebel, John Knoebel,.
Henry Leindecker, James J. McConnell, William Pound, Peter Roller,
George M. Roberts, Louis Kohlerman, James E. Smashea, William
Seekatz, Thomas H. Tyson, Mathias Miller, Joseph White, August
Wencke, organized under an act of the General Assembly of the State of
Indiana, to be known as the Ohio Valley Coffin Company, with a capital
stock of $30,000. Existence of the organization to be fifty years;
object, for the purpose of manufacturing wooden burial caskets and
The officers of the company were as follows: Timothy E. Scobey,
president; George T. Bateman, secretary; Israel Crist, treasurer; T. E.
Scobey, George Hodel, Jr., Israel Crist, Henry Leindecker, Charles
Decker, James C. Martin, Joseph McGranahan, Charles B. Burkam and
Charles Lommel, directors. The company erected their buildings on
High Street, between Ash and Maple Streets. The building for manu-
facturing purposes is 40x100 feet, three stories high. The warehouse is
35x70, three stories high.
For some years the enterprise languished and there was a frequent
change in officers. The present management, consisting of L. S. Isdell,
president; Charles Decker, superintendent and manager; Samuel
McElfresh, secretary and treasurer, have conducted the business since
in 1875, and under their management the trade has steadily revived
until the institution now occupies an enviable position. In 1873
the capital stock was increased to $39,000, and at present its capital
stock is $58,500. This is one of the leading factories of the city, and is
doing an extensive business. They manufacture all kinds of coffins,
caskets, and all kinds of trimmings are kept on hand. The capacity of
the factory is 600 coffins and caskets per week, and the annual business
of the concern amounts to upward of $100,000. Employment is given
292 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
to about seveuty-five workmen. The real estate of the company in 1876,
was valued at $19,000; stock of manufactured articles, $15,000; lumber
and materials, $7,000.
Similar Factories That Were. — In the line of manufactories, of
which we have just been treating, there have been others of considerable
proportions to which the city pointed with pride, but which are now
numbered with the things that were. The large four-story brick build-
ing, forty feet deep located in New Lawrenceburgh, facing Front Street,
is a monument to the enterprise of the Dearborn Furniture Company, by
whom it was built in 1873, it and the ground costing about $18,000.
This company, composed of George Otto, C. J. B. Ratjen, J. C. Keitel,
J. Gabriel, L. Bock, George Kaffenberger, A. Menken, Christ. Lommel,
Charles Kepper, Joseph Zengel, G. Baumgartner, Conrad Kepper, B.
Burkhardt, Rev. C. F. Worth, C. Kleyer, J. Hunnefield, F. Schneider,
F. Schlosser, P. Jacquot, A. Dietrich, J. W. Roth, J. H. Leindecker, J.
A. Schwartz, A. Gass, J. W. Loew, Herman Saager, L. Kupperschmidt,
J. Lose, P. L. Matheus, George Seekatz, C. Israel, J. Duerr, C. Fitterer,
J. Jack, F. Lang, C. Kress, A. Stienback, H. Knude, Joseph Pallizcino,
F. J. Messang, F. Kreider, J. Israel, F. Winter, B. Margileth, A.
Kiefer, M. H. Kiefer, H. Eberharfc, T. W. Kestner, Christopher
Scherger, Fred Schnider, A. Kanter, W. Panze, John Walser, John
Smith, John Ott, Fred Petershagen, Frank Federle, William Schoepflen,
Ed Seekatz and L. Arnold, was organized and'incorpovated in accord-
ance with the provisions of an act of the General Assembly of the State
of Indiana, a company to be known as the Dearborn Furniture Company.
The capital stock of the company was $40,000. They did business sev-
eral years only. Subsequent to the termination of their business the
McLain Chair Factory was established in the same building, which was
carried on only a year or so, when it too passed into history.
In 1875 a firm under the title of the Lawrenceburgh Chair Company,
composed of Matthew Bresbo and other practical mechanics, engaged in
the manufacture of chairs, making a specialty of cane bottom chairs, did
business on Walnut Street.
March 17, 1873, the firm of Marsh & Ewbank entered into a partner-
ship for the manufacture of a general line of wooden burial cases and
caskets. Their manufactory was situated on Elm Street and was well
equipped with improved machinery, run by steam power. Their ware
rooms were on Third Street. This enterprise lasted but a few years
when it ceased.
The Bauer Cooperage Company. — One of the leading industries of
the city was established in 1880 by James Walsh, who conducted the
business two years, when in 1882 it became the property of the present
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 293
firm, with a capital stock of 1100,000. The members of the company
and officers are James Walsh, N. J. "Walsh, secretary; D. F. Walsh,
Jacob N. Bauer, vice-president; John G. Bauer, president and treasurer.
The buildings and yard of this mammoth enterprise are located in New
Lawrenceburgh, on the corner of Third Street and the railroad (opposite
the brewery) and cover nearly half of the block, the main building
being a large two-story brick. The establishment is equipped with the
most modern and improved machinery, giving it a capacity of turning
out 600 casks per day. It gives employment to from 150 to 200 persons.
The establishment was burned on the night of December 2, 1884, but
was immediately rebuilt. Whisky casks only are here manufactured.
The Miami Stove TForAvs, located on the up] er end of High Street be-
between the tracks of the Big Four and Ohio& Mississippi Railroad, were
established in 1877 by S. L. Yourtee & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio. In consid-
eration, on the part of the city of Lawrenceburgh, of $27,000 and the
grounds, the company was induced to locate the works at this place. Messrs.
Frank R. Dorman, James D. Willis, Dr. Harding, George W. Preston,
H. C. Kidd and Col. Burkam were instrumental in securing the same.
Iq 1880, Yourtee & Co. assigned, and the establishment became the
property of a stock company, of which the present capital stock is $50.-
000, and the officers, Fred Naeher, president; J. E. Warneford, vice-
president, and Benjamin Ruthman, secretary. The buildings are of
brick and cover a large area of ground; the main building is three stories
high, 35x125 feet. The cost of the foundry, ready for operation, was
$35,000. The full capacity of the establishment is 150 men. They
manufacture various kinds of cooking and heating stoves, of which the
Miamis and May-Flowers have gained a large reputation.
The George Huschart & Co.^s Marble Works.— In the year 1841 George
Huschart and Jacob Meyer, Si\, entered into a co-partnership for the
purpose of carrying on the business of marble and freestone works.
Their place of business was located on the lot where the Odd Fellows
Hall is now built; the co-partnership existed until 1842. Mr. Meyer
disposed of his interest and moved to Connersville, Ind. There were
several changes in the firm from that time to the present, Mr. Huschart
always retaining a large interest. During that period, by the excellent
workmanship of the firm, they have built up an extensive trade. The
firm at present consists of George Huschart and Michael M. Huschart, his
son. Their place of business is located at Nos. 131, 133 and 135 Walnut
Street. They are prepared to fill all orders for monuments, tombstones,
tomb- tables, etc., of American and Italian marble, red and gray Scotch
granite, in the neatest and most tasteful styles. Mr. George Huschart,
senior member of the firm, is one of the oldest business men, with a
reputation for upright dealing in his business unquestioned.
294 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
The Carriage and Spring Wagon Manufactory of William Fike. — In
1850, A. A. Heifer and John Mower commenced the business of manu-
facturing carriages in the "old pork house building," on Walnut Street.
Their partnership continued about four years; they were succeeded by
Heifer & Woodward, who erected the large building now known as the
New York Store, in 1855, and carried on a very prosperous business,
manufacturing carriages mainly for the Southern market. In 1861 Mr.
Woodward retired from the business, and Mr. Heifer sold the building
and constructed another on Short Street, where he continued the business
until 1873, when he sold out to George Pfalzgraf 6l Bro.,who were the
proprietors of the manufactory up to 1881, when succeeded by the pres-
ent proprietor, whose place of business is designated as Nos. 23 & 25
Short Street, where he manufactures all kinds of buggies, phaetons,
spring-wagons, etc. He employs eight men.
The A. D. Cook Pump and Tube Well Manufactory. — These works
and light machine shops are located on the south side of Walnut, be-
tween Centre and Tate Streets, where are manufactured improved tube
wells, tube well strainers, the latter of which he makes a specialty of,
and on which he has established a good trade. All kinds of repairing
is also done by Mr. Cook, who is a live and enterprising man. The es-
tablishment was founded in 1882 and now gives employment to fifteen
men.
The Burkam Lumber Company was established in 1865 by J. H.
Burkam, with an investment of $20,000. In 1883 it was transferred to
a stock company, known under the above title. The firm is now com-
posed of J. H., W. T. and F. M. Burkam. The planing-mill, door,
flooring and sash factory and lumber yards are located on the corner of
Short and William Streets, where the business has been continuously
and extensively carried on.
P. Walter & Son, Dealer in Agricultural Implements, Feed Store and
Manufacturers of Wagons, Farming Tools and General Blacksmithing. —
This establishment is located on Walnut Street, and was founded, the
wagon and blacksmith department in 1879, and the implement business
added in 1882. These gentlemen are enterprising and public-spirited
business men, and deserving of the patronage of the country at large.
The Manufacture of Cigars. — For a period in this city's history and
that of the county. Dearborn was also famous for this branch of indus-
try. In the year 1873 it was said that there were more cigars manu-
factured in this county than in any other county in the United States
west of Cincinnati. The following is a statement of the number of
cigars sold by each manufacturer in the county during the year 1873;
CITY OF LAAVRENCEBURGH. 295
C. H. Werneke (Lawrenceburgh) 2,145,300
J. Rief & Bro. (Lawrenceburgh) 1,859,550
William Huber (Lawrenceburgh) 700,000
George Ritter (Aurora) 63,000
C. F. Cless (Aurora) 71,000
J. P. Arnold (Aurora) 118,000
Abeles & Jaehing (Aurora), eight months 63,000
H. Danimyer (Manchester) 183,000
H. Maune (St. Leon) 52,000
V. Hoff (Lawrenceville) 29,000
Total 5,303,050
Of the three Lawrenceburgh factories referred to, the one of Clamor
H. W. Werneke was established by that gentleman on a small scale in
1853. His business constantly increased, and from the first year's labor
of two hands and 100,000 cigars manufactured, it grew to that extent
that for a number of years there were employed from sixty to eighty
hands, manufacturing annually from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 cigars, and
expending for labor over $30,000, requiring an outlay for material to be
used in the process of manufacturing of over $35,000, and paying an-
nually to the General Government for revenue stamps over $16,000. In
1876 the county press thus alluded to him: "His manufactory is located
on High Street, built of brick, three stories high, and complete in all its
departments. Mr. "Werneke, with all his enterprise and energy, has
proven a benefactor to the interests of the laboring masses of our city.
He has taught hundreds the trade and ever acted generously with them;
and to-day, many of the first-class business men of the trade throughout
the various cities and towns of the "West learned the business with him.
Upright and prompt in all his dealings, he is known and appreciated in
all bubiness circles. May the pioneer of this great manufacturing inter-
est of our city live many years to enjoy the fruits of his energy and
enterprise."
In the centennial issue of the Register the factories of Jacob Rief &
Bro., and that of William Huber were thus referred to: "On the 1st
day of September, 1869, Jacob Rief & Bro., engaged in the manu-
facturing of a general line of cigars. Their manufactory was first located
on the corner of Walnut and William Streets, with a capital of less than
$100. Mr. Jacob Rief being a practical cigar maker, purchased the
materials and sold in a retail way at his shop the manufactured goods.
In time the business increased, and he employed one journeyman; dur-
ing the year 1869, there were manufactin'edJ39, 100 cigars; in the year
1870 the business still inc7"eased, and there were manufactured 119,200
cigars, which were principally sold in a retail way to the the trade in the
city. In the year 1871, was the commencement of the wholesale busi-
296 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
ness of the firm. A wholesale jobber in the trade at Indianapolis having
seen a sample of the goods being manufactured, called at the shop, and
astonished Mr. Rief by proposing to contract for the delivery of 10,000
cigars per week. He laid down his knife and the unfinished cigar, and
accepted the offer. At once with his usual energy he proceeded to ar-
range for the fulfillment of his contract. Closing out the retail depart-
ment he moved to more commodious rooms on the corner of New and
Walnut Streets; during that year he gave employment to from twelve to
fifteen persons; manufactured and sold 359,000 cigars. In the year
following the business was extended beyond the limits of the State, and
there were manufactured and sold 638,100 cigars. During the year fol-
lowing Mr. Rief facilitated the manufacturing of cigars by adopting
and using the Oberhelm patent molds; and having enlarged the manu-
factory buildings, employed a traveling agent to assist in introducing
his goods and making sales; the success and extent of the business of
that year far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the firm, and
there were manufactured and sold 2,161,750 cigars, giving employment
to from fifty to sixty persons. The business continually increased, and
there are annually manufactured over 3,000,000 cigars, giving employ-
ment to over eighty persons, and paying annually for labor the sum of
$31,000, and for materials in the manufacture of goods over $42,000,
and paying annually to the General Government for revenue stamps over
$16,000. Their manufactory is located at the corner of Walnut and
New Streets, 65x132 feet, and two stories high. The real estate and
buildings are valued at $10,000. The rapid growth and success of this
enterprise has been mainly attributed to the indomitable energy and
business qualifications of Mr. Jacob Rief. He is yet a young man, raised
in our midst; he has done a great deal in building up the manufactur-
ing interests of his native city.
" William Huber commenced the manufactui-e of cigars in the year
1866, being a practical cigar-maker, decided that he would commence
business for himself. Purchasing twenty-five pounds of tobacco, he
manufactured it, sold his cigars, purchased more stock, and by his in-
dustry and economy and honorable attention to business, he has in a few
years succeeded in establishing and building up a lucrative business.
He gives employment to from twelve to fifteen persons, and annually
manufactures from 500,000 to 700,000 cigars. His manufactory is
located on the corner of Walnut and William Streets. He is a young
man of good business qualifications, prompt and reliable, and of in-
dustrious habits, and ranks among our men of enterprise and energy."
Mr. Huber is still carrying on the business, but now located on High
Street between Walnut and Short. Neither of the other two factories
are in existence in the city at this time.
^y^?^^ /4^t:>o- *-i^^^ c^i^
CITY OF LAWRExXCEBURGH. 297
Other Past Manufacturies. — On High Street, opposite the courthouse
is a large brick building in which was formerly carried on the. business
of the Lawrenceburgh Woolen Mills. The building is 90x54 feet and
four stories high, in which were erected six machines called "Jacks," of
264 spindles each, or 1,584 in the aggregate. The Lawrenceburgh Woolen
Manufacturing Company was organized February, 1866, with a capital
stock of $50,000 . Its president was E. S. Blasdel and the secre-
tary was E. D. Moore. The board of directors were E. G. Hayes, W.
Hayes, John H. Ga£f, Isaac Dunn, E. S. Blasdel, L. B. Lewis and C. B.
Burkam. That spring they purchased of Col. J. H. Burkam the site
upon which this building was erected. The machinery for the factory
cost $35,000. Late in the year 1870 the mills suspended.
Along the river bank about opposite St. Clair Street several years ago
the firm of Henry Fitch & Co. built one of the largest and most com-
plete saw-mills in the State, having a capacity of sawing 80,000 feet of
lumber per day. The machinery was of the most improved order and
was put in the mill to get out rough and finished lumber with the great-
est speed possible. The mill was supplied with electric lights, and was
operated most of the time both day and night, and manuf actm-ed every,
thing from lath to the largest building material, and without doubt the
enterprise was the most gigantic ever attempted in this part of the State.
GAS WORKS.
The gas works of this city are located in New Lawrenceburgh, along
the track of the Big Four Railroad. They were established in 1868 by
a stock company with a capital stock of $28,600, and built by Messrs.
Barringer & Ewing. The first board of directors were J. H. Gaff, Theo-
dore Gazlay, O. T. Stockman, Zeph Heustis, A. A. Heifer, J. Giphard, J.
B. Shephard and John Hornberger. The first officers were J. H. Gaff,
president; Theodore Gazlay, vice-president; O. T. Stockman, secretary,
and J. H. Lewis, treasurer.
The works were completed and the city lighted with gas for the first
time on the night of Monday October 12, 1868.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
The first thoroughly organized and equipped fire department of the
city was established in 1882. This year a committee appointed by the
council purchased two steam fire engines manufactured by the Ahrens
Company of Cincinnati, the cost of the engines complete with reel cart
and 2,000 feet of hose to be $10,800. January 25, 1883, the engines
name "Miami" and "Edenburg" put in their appearance. The Miami
was at once given a test trial in the presence of a large crowd of citizens
298 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
In about three and a half minutes after the match was applied to the
engine she was throwing a full stream of water as high as any house in
the city. The trial was satisfactory. Both engines are alike, and were
much admired on their first appearance on the street. "The fire laddies
acquitted themselves with credit in handling the hose, considering it was
their first experience in this line. They found the hose a rather tough
customer to handle at first and not a few of them were sprinkled in their
efiforts to manage when a full stream was being thrown." Both the New-
town and Oldtown companies are well officered and there is no reason why
they should not prove to be one of the best volunteer fire departments
in the State. The companies are composed of men of energy and pluck,
and if they manifest the interest and enthusiasm that their friends ex-
pect, they will soon become the pride of our city.
Two engine houses, both substantial and ornamental brick buildings,
located on the north side of Short, between High and William Streets,
and on Third, near Shipping Street (Newtown), were at once built, and
have since been the quarters of the two companies, which are styled
Lawrenceburgh Fire Company No. 1 and Lawrenceburgh Fire Com-
pany No. 2. On the adoption of the constitution and by-laws in Janu-
ary, 1883, the companies were given as follows:
Fire Company No. 2. — Chief of Fire Department, August D. Cook;
assistant chief, J. H. Menke, Sr. ; captain, John T. Tittel; lieutenant,
Gustav H. Donk; secretary, Charles Spanagel; assistant secretary,
Henry G-ambor; treasurer, J. H. Menke, Sr. ; hose directors — Jacob
Schimpf, Jr., Henry A. Menke, Jr., Andrew J, Pusey, Jr., John Spana-
gel, Henry Stahla,"John B. Garnier, Jr.; messengers — Charles Miller,
Frank Lipps, John Gambor; police — Jacob A. Lamason, Peter Zins,
John Weaver, John Gardner, August Yerger; standing committee —
Harry F. Leuchtenburg, Harry Vest, Al Sherrod; engineers — George
W. Ward, Albert Sherrod; stokers — George W. Foster, Edward Leien-
decker; ax men — William Kaffenberger, Henry Gambor; additional
members — George Bechtel, Barney Niemeyer, William Hardley, Edward
Heaton; Asa Dillon, William Bush, Andrew Gross.
Fire Company No. 1. — Chief of Fire Department, August D. Cook;
assistant chief, Hugh S. Miller; captain, James Brannon; lieutenant,
Theodore Wade; secretary, John G. King; treasurer, Mathias Hansel
man; engineers — J. W. Fawcett, Robert Killough, Wilson F. Gaff;
stokers — Charles E. Crontz, Perry A. Skinner, George Schrader,
John C. Ratjen; pipemen — James Isherwood, Charles F. Kohr, John
O'Toole, William Lannigan; police — John Sicking, Henry Schrader,
William Henn, P. W. Jackson, Hanson Freeman; messengers — A. J.
Huffman, Ralph Fisher, F. Ferguson. Hook and ladder company —
CITY OF LAAVRENCEBURGH. 299
foreman, William Sparks; James Walker, Louis Hitzfield, Gustavo
AV^ehrlinof, Frank Mason, Isaac Squires, William Standrifif, Frank Bar-
tholome, Charles Schrader, Edward Barrett, Albert Bartholome, R, Kro-
nenberg, James Haney, Samuel Grififith. The fire plugs and cisterns are
set forth in the following list: Plugs — At Miami Stove Foundi'y, west
end of Columbus, Indianopolis, St. Louis & Cincinnati depot, Miami
Valley Furniture Factory, Lawrenceburgh Flour-Mill, McLean Chair
Factory, Lawrenceburgh furniture company, Rossville Distillery, Squibb's
Distillery. Cisterns — Corner St. Clair and Center Streets, corner Elm
and Margaret Streets, corner High and Short Streets, corner Walnut and
Centre Streets, corner High and Charlotte Streets, in front of Catholic
school building, in front of Catholic Church, corner First and Front
Streets, Newtown; corner Third and Main Streets, Newtown; corner
Main and New Streets, Newtown.
SOCIETIES.
Union Lodge No. 8, of the I. O. O. F., was instituted at Lawrence-
burgh on the 1st day of February, 1841, in the building on High Street
several years ago, occupied by Werneke's cigar manufactory, by Grand
Master Christian Bucher, and assistants. The charter members were
N. N. John, Benjamin Mayhew, John Wymond, William Eichelberger
and Willis Miles. The first officers were William Eichelberger, N. G. ;
Benjamin Mayhew, V. G. ; N. N. John, secretary; John Wymond, treas-
urer. Nearly all the other charter members (in 1876) had passed away.
Brother John then resided in Galveston, Texas; Brother Wymond in
Indianopolis. Brother Mayhew died in this city, and the members of the
order, true to their sacred principles, assisted and educated his orphans.
Brother Eichelberger died June 2, 1871. He was a true and noble
man, an honor to his lodge, and a faithful exponent of its charitable
teachings. He lived respected by his fellow men, and died lamented by
all who knew him. The first initiations were George Dunn, John Gill,
David Gibson, J. S. Lemly, John Kyle, Jesse Hippie and Martin H.
Oflfutt. The oldest member of the lodge (in 1876) was Samuel Craft, of
Atchison, Kas., who had been a member since February 24, 1841.
January 18, 1845, Brothers George Dunn, P. Ewing, Jason Piei'ce,
H. R. Hall, George Chandler, William Davidson, John Medrus, O. T.
Stockman, O. P. Gray, George Morton and E. Bateman withdrew by
card for the purpose of organizing Vigilance Lodge No. 16. Said lodge
has since surrendered its charter. The lodge now numbers sixty- five,
and it is officered as follows: Stephen H. Heustis, noble grand; D. C.
Huffman, vice grand; J. R. Kuhlman, permanent secretary; William
Fagaly, recording secretary; Peter Braun, treasurer; John D. Bostic,
conductor; George Wood, warden; John M. Roehm, I. Guardian.
300 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
December 9, 1850, Brothers H. Dawson, R. Greenfield, Robert
Lancaster and E. Jackson, withdrew for the purpose of establishing a
lodge at Guilford. In the year 1853, the present hall building was
erected at a cost of $11,500.
From the organization of the lodge up to 1876, there were received
as members 375 persons. The financial condition of the lodge was then:
General fund, $9,509.75; orphan fund, $2,172.43.
Foriuna Lodge No. 289, I. O. O. i^.— July 29, 1867, C. J. B.
Ratjen, L. Adler, George P. Vogel, George Myers, William Young,
Anton Schneider, William Linkenbach, John Eisel, Frederick Klein-
hans and A. Probsel, withdrew from Union Lodge, for the purpose of
organizing Fortuna Lodge No. 289, which is in a flourishing condition.
Lawrenceburgh Chajjter No. 56, R. A. M. — Dispensation granted
December 20, 1865, signed by Thomas Pattison, G. H. P., and William
Hacker, G. Sec. The petitioners were James M. Brashei', E. G. Hayes,
J. W. Mills, William Smith, Leon Adler, J. H. Gafif, Alex Beckman,
George Mather, E. S. Blasdell. The charter was granted May 24, 1866.
Comp. Pattison installed Comp. J. M. Brasher as M. E. ; H. P. Beck-
man, King, and J. H. Gaff, Scribe. The joint election of officers, June
27, 1867, resulted as follows: Alexander Beckman, H. P; B. S. Blasdell,
K; J. H. Gaflf, secretary; Leon Adler, C. H. ; J. M. Brasher, P. S.; S. Hor-
ton, R. A. C. ; J. C. Hibbets, secretary; George Decker, treasurer; E. G.
Haynes, Capt. third vail; J. H. Burkam, second vail; R. R. Benham,
first vail; William F. Crocker, guard. The present membership is
thirty-two. The present officers are as follows: S. H. Collins, H. P.;
N. S. Givan, K; L. S. Isdell, Scribe; S. Dickinson, C. H. ; J. C. Hibbets,
P. S.; J. F. Rolf, R. A. C; R. R. Benham, Capt. third vail; J. M. Pal-
mer, Capt. second vail; J. R. Trisler, Capt. first vail; Louis Adler,
treasurer; George Decker, secretary.
Dearborn Lodge No. 49, K. of P., was instituted at Lawrenceburgh
by W. G. Wheeler, D. D. G. C, with other members of Aurora, July 2,
1874, with the following named thirteen charter members: John E.
Ammel, P. C. : Martin- L. Rouse, 0. C. ; Joseph R. Kuhlman, V. C. ;
John H. Russe, P. ; Samuel M. Shephard, K. of R. and S. ; Boone Rice,
M. of F. ; Joseph Mooney, M. of E. ; R. J. Wood, M. at A. ; Charles
Shephard, I. G. ; George W. Johnson, O. G. ; Hugh S. Miller, Robert
Killough, Edward Dobell. Present membership, ninety.
The Lawrenceburgh Liedertafel was organized in October, 1858, with
eight members. Rules and by-laws were made and adopted September 8,
1859, and the first regular election of officers occurred October 13, of
that year, Prof. Meyer and Frederick Haas acting as president and
secretary, respectively, in the meantime. The first officers elected were
CITY OF LAWRENCEBURGH. 301
Charles J. B. Ratgen, president; Dr. August Schmitt, secretary, and
Michael Lang, treasurer. The society, though experiencing di'awbacks,
has been continuous since the organization, and is now in a prosperous
condition, with a membership of about eighty persons. The present offi-
cers are Charles Decker, president; James R. Kuhlman, vice-president;
Charles Ratgen, Jr., secretary; Frank Federle, treasurer; Emil A.
Roehing, director of singing.
Germania Lodge No. 223, D. O. H., was instituted February 22, 1871,
by officers of the State Lodge of Indianapolis with a membership of
twelve. The present officers are Jacob Decker, O. B. ; Frederick Krieg,
XJ. B.; Herman Hoefer, secretary; Charles J. B. Ratgen, treasurer.
Lodge room in the third story of building on the corner of Short and
Centre Streets.
Columbia Grove No. 2, U. A. O. D., was instituted November 1, 1858,
with thirteen members, by a gentleman from Louisville, Ky. The
present officers are Adam Proebsel, E. E. ; Anton Kiefer, U. E. ; Charles
J. B. Ratgen, secretary, and John Albrecht, treasurer. The society
meets in hall in third story of building on the corner of Short and
Centre Streets.
OLD LANDMAKKS AND BELICS.
It is said that the first brick house erected in Lawrenceburgh was
built by Dr. Jabez Percival, in the very beginning of the present centu-
ry. The building is still standing and is in a good state of preserva-
tion. It is located in the rear of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
faces the river, and is now known as the "Bee Hive." It is a substantial,
two-story structure, quite large; the lower windows in front are square;
the walls are about three feet thick, and in which were used what is
called "slop brick," an article of brick made by hand, but dipped, while
raw, in water instead of sand. It seems bricklayers in that day were
not adepts in mechanics, and did not know how to construct the modern
arch with brick, with its key, etc. In this building, wherever an arch
occurs, the key, or center brick, is of mammoth proportions, formino-
about one-third of the arch. An ordinary sized man could easily go to
sleep on its walls, and even if disturbed by a bad dream, could roll and
still retain his position on the outer wall.
What is known by the older residents of Lawrenceburgh as the Hunt
Hotel, a large, three-story brick building on the corner of Walnut and
High Streets, was erected in 1819 or 1820, by Jesse Hunt, and is said to
have been the first three-story brick structure erected in the State. This
three-story house, it is stated by old settlers, struck the then primitive
citizens with a kind of awe of curiosity and wonder. While the third
tory was being added, frequent remarks were made, like " What in the
s
302 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
world is Jesse Hunt going to do with them rooms way up there? A fel-
low would break his neck looking out of them windows," etc.
Until within recent years there were several old territorial relics in
possession of Maj. Anderson, formerly proprietor of the Anderson House
(old Hunt Hotel, above referred to), which consisted of an antiquated-
looking, high desk, and a common table (both very solidly and honestly
made), both of which formed part of the furniture of the first land office
established in the Northwest Territory. These articles did their duty
both at Vincennes and Cincinnati, the late Peyton Symmes being their
last user in Cincinnati ere the land office was removed to Chillicothe.
The old desk and table then became the property of Gen. Harrison, and
were saved out of the destruction by fire of the Harrison homestead at
North Bend.
THE CENTENNIAL FOURTH.
The 4:th of July, 1876, was appropriately observed at Lawrencebnrgh.
The city was pretty profusely and extensively decorated, large flags be-
ing suspended from the principal buildings and across the streets. On
the night of the 3d Capt. Shrader's company camped in the fair ground,
and at midnight began a march through the city, on their way firing sa-
lutes in front of the houses of the mayor, councilmen, and other prom-
inent citizens. The procession formed on Walnut Street under Grand
Marshal F. R. Doi'man, composed of the Continental Guards and differ-
ent societies of citizens; two decorated cars, each containing a young
lady representing the Goddess of Liberty, surrounded by others repre-
senting different States; the ship of state manned by youths in sailor's
costume, and bearing a young lady representing Columbia, and two dec-
orated cars containing little girls in costumes displaying the national
colors.
The procession marched through the principal streets, thence to the
fair grounds, where the exercises of the day took place. The latter con-
sisted of music by the band, prayer by William Chapman, reading of
the Declaration of Independence in English by E. F. Sibley, addresses
by Capt. J. D. Willis, reading of the Declaration of Independence in
German by Charles J. B. Ratgen, and addresses by R. E. Slater and J.
E. Larimer.
CITY OF AURORA. 303
CHAPTER XVI.
CITY OF AURORA.
Location and Origin— Incorporation and the Early Village— Rem-
iniscences—Acts OF Aurora's First Magistrate— Aurora a City
ITS Mayors— The Electric Telegraph and Telephone— The City,
1858-59— Groavtii and Progress— Fire of 1882- Floods of 1882-83-84—
Educational Fire Department— Ecclesiastical History— Lead-
ing Manufacturing Interests— Banking Houses—The Grand Op-
era House— Postmasters— Societies.
AURORA is situated on the right bank of the Ohio River, four
miles below Lawrenceburgh and twenty-six below the city of Cin-
cinnati, Ohio. The natural beauty of the site of the city is rarely sur-
passed, the river at this point making a graceful curve or bend, and
thereby is given the city one of the finest harbors on the river from
Pittsburgh to its mouth. Partially built on and surrounded by towering
hills, with both branches of Hogan Creek gently wending their way
through her limits, it possesses that picturesque and romantic air seldom
bestowed on any city. In the growth of the city these hills have been
climbed, and many are the beautiful homes here located from which the
lover of nature can feast his eyes upon a grand and most beautiful pic-
ture.
The original plat of the village contained about 206 lots, besides six
public squares or tracts of ground equal to twelve lots, and extended
from the Ohio River — Water Street — to Ridgeway, a street parallel with
Water, and from Importing Street to Library Street. It was laid out in
1819, by Jesse L. Holman, trustee for the "Aurora Association for Inter-
nal Improvements, on fractional Sections 32 and 33, Town 5, Range 1
west. These fractional sections bordering on the Ohio River, were
entered by Charles Vattier, then of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 18th day of
September, 1804, and were purchased in 1819 by an association of gen-
tlemen residing in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, for the purpose of
laying out a town. The association was called "The Aurora Association
for Internal Improvements." The two fractional sections, except a
small reservation at Hogan Creek, were conveyed to Jesse L. Holman, in
trust for the association, on the 14th day of January, 1819, and the
original plat of the town was acknowledged by Mr. Holman as trustee,
304 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
before James Dill, recorder of the county, on the 30th day of January,
1819, and recorded the same day, when Judge Holman gave the pros-
pective city the name of "Aurora.''
The following is an extract from the original article of agreement
between Vattier and the purchasers:
"Articles of agreement and association entered into this day, Jan-
uary, 14, 1819, between Charles Vattier, of Cincinnati, in the State
of Ohio, of the first part, and Jesse L. Holman, Richard Norris,
Martin Cozine, Samuel Moore, Erasmus Powell, David Fisher, Jehi-
el Buffington, and James Powell, of Indiana; Elijah Horsley, Will-
iam Scandrett, Philip Craig and Ebenezer GrifiSng, of Kentucky;
John W. Langdon, Daniel Dudley, Benjamin Mudge, Charles Farren
Watson Lewis and Jesse L. Langdon, of Ohio, parties of the second part,
are as follows, viz.: Charles Vattier, party of the first part, for and in
consideration of the covenants and agreements herein and after ex-
pressed, to be performed on the part of the said parties of the second
part, has this day and hereby does grant, bargain and sell to them, the
said parties of the second part, nineteen -twentieths of two portions
of land in Dearborn County, in the State of Indiana, situate at
the mouth of Hogan Creek, viz. : fractions thirty-two and thirty-
three, containing 516 35-100 acres, more or less." By the terms of the
instrument, Vattier reserved that part of Section 32 which lies on
the upper side of Hogan Creek. The association was to pay $19,000
for the property in ten equal annual installments. The first installment
was paid one year from the date of transfer, and one each year there-
after until all were paid.
The first meeting of the association was held on the 20th of January,
1819, with all the members present. Judge Jesse L. Holman, father of
Hon. W. S. Holman, was chosen president of the meeting, and Benjamin
Mudge, clerk. At this meeting a constitution governing the association,
which had been previously drafted, was accepted. The constitution pro-
vided that the regular meetings of the association be held twice a year,
on the second Monday in January and July. Jesse L. Holman was
appointed trustee of the association, in whom the legal title of the land
was ■ invested. The constitution was acknowledged before Charles B.
Cannon, a justice of the peace in Dearborn County, on the 25th of Janu-
ary, 1819, and placed on record in the books of James Dill, county
recorder, on the 30th. At the first meeting it was decided that "the
company proceed by themselves or their directors to lay out a town, to
build an ox saw-mill and grist-mill, a bridge across Hogan Creek, a
warehouse or such other improvements as they may judge proper." On
the 1st of February, 1819, it was ordered that the directors receive sealed
CITY OF AURORA. 305
proposals for the building of a bridge across Hogan Creek, at the end of
Bridgeway Street. One of the conditions of the contract was that the
"proprietors and their families pass toll free." The bridge was not
built until 1836. At a meeting held April 13, 1819, Richard Norris, as
agent of the company, was required to give bonds in the sum of $40,000;
as treasurer Philip Craig gave bonds to the extent of $30,000.
The first sale of lots took place April 28, 1819, with the terms of
sale as follows:
" One per cent in hand; one-fifth, including the 1 per cent, in eight
weeks; one-fourth of the balance every year thereafter until paid. If
not paid punctually interest to be added from the time of contract."
At this sale 206 lots were disposed of, including those donated to persons
who agreed to commence improvements at once. The lowest price paid
for a single lot was $60, the highest $486. The entire sale amounted to
$28,553. On the 11th of July, 1820, Elias Conwell^was admitted as a
member of the association, he having purchased the shares owned by
Erasmus Powell. Other transfers of stock were afterward made. About
this time the company commenced drilling wells for salt water, near
where the Crescent Brewing Company's brewery now stands, and Horace
Bassett and Conwell were appointed a committee to superintend the work.
In January, 1820, an entire square was donated to Samuel Harris, on con-
dition that he would make improvements on the same equal to four sub-
stantial buildings within eighteen months. At the same meeting of the
company it was ordered as follows: " That four lots be donated to the
friends of Samuel Harris, and ground suflScient to establish a cotton-mill
or woolen-mill, provided the same be established thereon within four
years." January 10, 1821, the ferries across the Ohio River and Hogan
Creek were leased to Edward Fairchild for a term of two years.
October 24, 1822, Jesse L. Holman resigned his position as director,
trustee and treasurer, his duties as one of the three judges of the
supreme court, to which place he had been appointed by Gov. Jennings,
demanding all his attention. The thanks of the association were ten-
dered him for the " ability, wisdom, impartiality and integrity with
which he managed the concerns of the company." The trust property
was then conveyed to Richard Norris, afterward to Horace Basset, and
finally to Isaiah Wing. The proceedings of a meeting of the company
held April 27, 1820, are so brief, and withal so unique, that they deserve
to be reproduced:
Resolved. That when any member wishes to speak he shall rise and respectfullv
address Mr. President.
Resolved, That when two or more rise to speak at the same time, the president
shall decide which shall proceed.
Adjourned to attend the sale of lots.
18
306 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
The deed from Charles Vattier and Camila, his wife, conveying the
property to the Aurora Association, was acknowledged before Isaac G.
Burnett, who was the mayor of Cincinnati.
The lots were sold mostly on credit, and at very high prices, and
for three or four years a great deal of public attention was given to the
enterprise and quite a flourishing little village was built up, but at that
time there was but little immigration Westward, great scarcity of money,
and few of the lots were paid for, and many of them forfeited to the
association, Charles Vattier became the owner of a large number of the
lots and most of the reserved lands, and afterward transferred the same
to William Israel, attorney in trust, and he to Buchanan, Buell and Lane,
which became the property, by transfer, of George W. Lane about the
year 1835.
Mr. Holman, as trustee of the association, acknowledged an addition
to the village in the spring of 1820 to be correct. In 1837 twenty out-
lots, containing a fraction over forty-eight acres of land, were added.
Later additions were made in 1844 by George W. Lane; in 1845 by
George W. Chrisman; and in 1846 by Henry Walker.
The following lots were designated and set apart by the association for
special purposes, January 18, 1820: on Literary, now Fifth Street, lot
No. 208, for Library Association; two lots east of the old Baptist Church
building, lot No. 209, to the Aurora Baptist Church; one lot east of the
present old church building, lot No. 210, for school purposes; the lot
on which now stands the old meeting-house, a public square at the head
of Judiciary Street; lot No. 216, to the Masonic Order; on the site of the
residence of Rev. Mr. Freeman, lot No. 221, to the Methodist Episcopal
Church; on the site of the residence of Joseph MeCreary, lot No. 221,
for school purposes; adjoining lots mentioned one, lot No. 227, to
Presbyterian Church; one lot west of the Mrs. James Wymond's residence,
lot No. 228, for school purposes.
INCORPORATION AND THE EARLY VILLAGE.
In September, 1822, an election was held to choose a board of
trustees for the corporation of Aurora, when the following named persons
were elected: Edward Fairchild, Timothy Brown, Elias Con well, Abraham
St. John and Ebenezer B. Mudge. Horace Bassett was chosen clerk of
the board. Up to this date improvements in the town had gone forward
slowly, and many of the lots were forfeited to the association, owing to
the inability of the purchasers to meet payments. It was necessary, in
many cases, to grant further time to those who were improving the donation
lots. One of the first houses built in the town was erected on a donation
vt, by Henry Van Middlesworth. It was finished in 1822, and occupied
CITY OF AURORA. 307
for several years as a hotel and store, being, probably, the first public
house in the place. It was known as the "Aurora Hotel," and was kept
by Van Middlesworth. The house still remains, and is now the residence
of Ira Hill, corner of Front and Second Streets. Conwell and Vattier
became the owners of many of the lots, and among the first buildings
erected may also be mentioned the frame house which yet stands at the
south end of Hogan Creek bridge, corner of Main and Importing Streets,
and the frame part of the Eagle Hotel, on Front Street. The former was
built by Conwell, who occupied it as a store and dwelling for many
years, and the latter by Vattier. In this building Vattier kept the first
saloon that was opened in Aurora. Among the first brick houses erected
is the one at present occupied by Mrs. Cochran and daughters, corner of
Main and Second Streets. It was built by Aaron Foulk, father of L. N.
Foulk, who had a store there for some time. One or two stores besides
those mentioned, were kept in Aurora at that period, while Wilmington
had about three places where merchandise was bought and sold. Takino-
the extent of the population into consideration the community was quite
as well supplied with places of business in those early times as now.
But few steam-boats were running, and the merchants brought their goods
from Cincinnati in small flat-boats. Previous to the flat-boat the pirogue,
a craft of the canoe kind, was used for the transportation of goods. The
first ferries across the river and creek at this point consisted of these
pirogues.
The fertile lands of southeastern Indiana were attracting emigrants
from the country East, and from 1820 to 1825 the population of Dear-
born County increased with wonderful rapidity. Center Township (then
Laughery Township) and the new town of Aurora received a fair share
of this population. Many new houses were erected in the town and con-
siderable business activity was manifested. The panic was brought on
about this period by the failure of banks in all parts of the country, and
Aurora suffered with every other town and city in the West. A check
was put upon improvements, and but little progress was made for some
time. Money was scarce and the products of the country lower than evei-
before or since. Prime corn would bring but 7 cents a bushel; eggs
were sold for 2 cents a dozen, and butter for 3 cents a pound. Other
things were proportionately low.
In 1823-24 Pinkney James, of Cincinnati, built a small steam-boat
on the bank of the Ohio, in front of the Eagle Hotel property, and on the
4th day of July, 1824, it was launched, and the event celebrated by the
firing of cannon, etc. The boat was named the "Clinton." Hundreds
of persons came in from the surrounding country to witness the demon-
strations and pass the Fourth in town. During the festivities, Henry
308 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Van Middlesworth was killed. He was assisting in the loading and
managing at the caonon, when a premature explosion took place, killing
him instantly. He was standing in front of the gun ramming the charge
with an iron bar. The top of his head was carried away, and the body
hurled over the bank, a distance of several feet. Old citizens speak of
this day as exceeding all others in the history of the town in the amount
of drunkenness, fighting and general lawlessness indulged in. The town
was filled with people, and whisky was sold and drank without stint.
Two roughs had a desperate fight in the blood where Van Middlesworth
fell, and immediately after the body was removed, while scores of people
looked on and applauded the beastly spectacle. Dozens of tights occurred
during the day, and for the time being law and order were accounted
as naught. Among other incidents a notorious rough named Kilgour,
who had been drinking heavily, drew a pistol on David Milburn, against
whom he had a fancied grudge, and was only prevented from firing by a
cool-headed bystander striking the weapon from his hand.
The first house in this locality, in the building of which any
pretensions were made to appearance or convenience, was erected by
Clayborn Morrison, at a very early date, on the site of Strawder Cheek's
residence. It was built of logs (a decided improvement on poles, willows
and bark), was higher than the architect of the period seemed to require,
and contained three rooms. History is silent as to the way in which this
residence was furnished, but as Mr. Morrison was probably a gentleman of
advanced ideas, it is safe to presume that he had his forest home fixed
up in a manner closely akin to "style. " The second house of this character
was built and occupied by Page Cheek, and was located somewhere
on the present Billingsley farm.
Referring again to Mr. Conwell, it was stated at his death that he, in
1819, erected the building at the corner of First and Main Streets, and
in it established the first mercantile store in the village, and in connec-
tion therewith kept the postoflfice for eight years. His house was the
resort of politicians and others, and his estimable lady, a daughter of
Charles Tatem, of Cincinnati, made their abode the seat of refined
hospitality.
In 1828 the author of a geography and history of the Western States
thus spoke of Aurora: "Aurora is a new village at the mouth of Hogan
Creek, four miles below Lawrenceburgh on the Ohio. It contains between
sixty and seventy dwelliugs."
Five years later (1833). The Indiana Gazateer thus described the
village : " It contained about 600 inhabitants, 3 stores, 1 tavern, a
physician, a lawyer, a preacher of the Gospel, several mechanics of
different professions, a seminary, a church, and a large and prosperous
Sunday-school."
CITY OF AURORA. 309
REMINISCENCES.
The following article containing reminiscences of early Aurora was
published in the Independent Banner in 1852, then edited by N. D,
Folbre :
"We are no stranger in Aux'ora. Our earliest recollections in life
had their existence here. Our days, from our infancy, have been mostly
spent in this place ; and we profess to know something of its early his-
tory.
"All that territory now covered with neat houses, and known as the
Fifth Ward of the town, we knew when it was overspread with Indian
corn, yielding annually a bountiful harvest. Beneath Chambers' store
once run a deep ravine, from the hills west of the town, and emptied
into the Ohio. So deep was that ravine, that a tolerably sized wooden
bridge was thrown across it, for the benefit of the citizens and travelers.
In summer we have played in its waters ; in winter have skated upon its
frozen surface. Our playmates, who sported with us then, are now
nearly all gone ; some are in California, a few yet reside here, but most
of them are dead.
"Remember well the old grist-mill which stood on the bank of South
Hogan Creek, about fifty yards to the right of the walnut tree at the head
of Third Street ; saw the oxen when they tramped the wheel that turned
the mill, and the miller when he took his toll. Recollect when Hogan
Creek at its mouth was sixty feet deep (when the Ohio was low), and the
old Frenchman, Vattier, when he kept the ferry across it, and took his
'eleven -penny bit.' In those days this •
' Town was all covered over
With bramble and with clover.'
and some dog- fennel and a few Jamestown (Jimpson) weeds. Oh! those
were brave old days.
"At a still earlier date, about the year 1828, when four years of age
we attended school, held in a log- cabin, which stood on what was then a
grassy common, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, west of Squire Harris'
dwelling. This was also used as a place of worship for Methodists, a
sect at that time few in number here. Twenty-five or thirty frame and
log-houses composed the village. A few years later, the brick house on
the corner of Main and Second, occupied by O. P. Cobb, as a dwelling,
was built by Aaron Foulk, in the east part of which he resided, in the
west he opened a diy goods store. This house was considered a vast im-
provement to the town, and was universally styled the 'big brick.'
Above the door of the store-room was posted a sign of dark green ground
with bright yellow letters which read 'A. Foulks' New Store,' much to
the delight of the good people of the neighborhood. In 1835, where
310 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
our office now stands, there stood a frame house, occupied by Daniel
Bartholomew, Esq. (deceased), as a drug and dry goods store. The Squire
was one of the oldest inhabitants, and filled the various posts of mer-
chant, magistrate and doctor — there being no regular physician in the
village. His store-house was destroyed by fire. The day it was burned
we were in school taught by one Gauf Wilson (who will be remembered
by all wbo were so unlucky as to have been his pupils, for his peculiar
propensity for applying the birchen rod). A fire those days in town was
a remarkable event, and the school was dismissed and teacher and
scholars hastened, en masse, to the scene of disaster, where all the vil-
lagers old and young, male and female, had assembled to render their
aid to the sufferer.
"At that time there were few steamers plying upon our beautiful Ohio.
Some of them were hard -looking crafts, compared with the splendid boats
of the present day. When a passenger wished to take passage, if in the
night, the boat was brought to shore by the discharge of a rifle or other
small gun. Freights and passage were dear, and many of the people of
the village and neighborhood preferred traveling on the old 'Fearnot,' a
keel-boat, greatly celebrated as a fast traveler, making one trip every two
weeks to Cincinnati, freighted, generally, with barrels, hoop-poles and
staves; and, returning, brought goods of all kinds for our small shop-
keepers and the neighboring villages. This unparalleled speed was
eclipsed, however, by a smaller keel-boat, under the command of a gentle-
man who was determined to outdo time itself, and a brag trip to Cincin-
nati (including the taking in and discharging of the freight) was conse-
quently made in eight days. Thereafter, when this swift craft came in
sight of our port, and blew her famous boat-horn, the villagers assembled
on the river bank to greet her and hear the latest news.
"The year 1836, almost seventeen years since, was a great era in the his-
tory of Aurora— a printing office was established in the town. It was
called the Indiana Signal, and was owned by George W. Lane, and
several others, and edited by S. C. Hastings, now a supreme judge in
California. The Signal was devoted to the election of Martin Van Buren
to the presidency. John K. Wilcox,^who yet resides here, had the control
of the mechanical department; in that office, and under his direction, we
set our first type. William Webber, was also an apprentice in the office,
and many a boyish fracas had we there together. The office was in the
upper story of the house now occupied by Judge Kumel as a tavern, on
Main Street, near the creek. But the 6'i^na/ was short lived: it rendered
all its strength to Van Buren's election, for which purpose it was estab-
lished, and shortly after that event, its Democratic fires ceased to burn.
A paper printed with the same type and press, called the Dearborn Dem-
CITY OF AURORA. 311
ocrat, was started shortly after the decease of the Signal, by one J. C.
Whitilsey, but died in a very short time, for lack of support. In the
latter part of 1838, or early in 1839, a newspaper, entitled The Dear-
born County Democrat, was started in town, in the room we now occupy,
by Alexander E. Glenn. The paper was Democratic, and advocated, in
1840, the re-election of Van Buren. The election of Gen. Harrison was
too much for Mr. Glenn, and his paper shortly after that event went by
the board.
"At this period the census of the United States was taken, and Au-
rora was found to contain only 490 inhabitants! And not till about 1844
did the place give evidence of ever being anything more than a small
village. But the country for many miles around the town, being exceed-
ingly rich and productive, whose trade, if proper inducements were held
out could be secured, and the locality of the place being one of the best
on the Ohio, possessing the finest harbor and landing on the river for
the largest class of boats in the lowest stage of water, were advantages
no longer to be overlooked. Strangers commenced coming in, build-
ing and locating. Business and dwelling houses were in demand; prop-
erty increased in Value. The old citizens holding property, put up sub-
stantial houses. Real estate was in constant demand. Men of capital
were attracted to the town; and soon Aurora contained a number of val-
uable houses. From year to year the place continued to prosper. Now,
in the year 1852, Aurora numbers over 3,000 inhabitants, supports two
newspapers, and contains some of the most elegant and costly houses in
the State — several of them erected at an expense of $9,000, $14,000
and $15,000 each.
Several hundred flat-boats, freighted with produce, every season leave
our port for Southern markets. A superior steamer plys as a regular
daily packet between this place and Cincinnati. A considerable busi-
ness is also picked up here by the mail and Madison boats. No steamer
fails to land at our wharves as she passes. In our midst, and around
us, are signs of active business. Our landings are crowded with freight,
our streets filled with wagons from the country,our mechanics busy
in their shops, our merchants engaged at their counters — all denoting a
flourishing little city and prosperous community. What a change in a
few years! At this point the great Ohio & Mississippi Railroad first
strikes the Ohio River; the machine shops for which, are to be located
near the west part of the city. These shops will occupy twenty acres,
including the dwellings of the workmen, and will bring to our place, it
is estimated, 400 families."
ACTS OF aurora's FIRST MAGISTRATE.
Daniel Bartholomew was the first magistrate of Aurora. He was
312 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
elected justice of the peace in the year 1822, and from a docket left by
him it would appear that he served in that capacity for about eleven
years. In this ancient record, which is yet in the possession of Richard
Hubbartt, Esq., of Aurora, the earliest entry was made January 9, 1822,
in a case entitled "Ebenezer Lange vs. Noah and James Lambert."
It was a plea of debt to recover $10. On that date the plaintiff ap-
peared and withdrew the suit, when the case was dismissed by the justice.
The last record bears date of July 6, 1832, showing that Squire Bartholo-
mew's term of office was somewhat extended.
Daniel Bartholomew came to Aurora in 1819 or 1820, from Vermont.
During a freshet in the river he landed his family at the mouth of Hogan
Creek, in a small boat, in which they had probably floated from Pitts-
burgh. His family consisted of a wife and two daughters. One of the
daughters afterward became the wife of George W. Cochxan, a man
well known by the older citizens of Aurora and prominently connected
with the early history of the town. "When the water fell Bartholomew
allowed his boat to "beach," and continued to live in it for about one
year. He then built a small house on the bank of the river a short dis-
tance below where the Eagle House stands. In this house he lived with
his family and kept a small store. After he was elected justice of the peace,
he also used it as an office. Aurora was then in embryo. The building
now occupied as a residence by Mr. Ira Hill, corner of Second and Front
Streets, and the one built by Bartholomew, were the only houses on the
bank of the river. Charles Vattier, the original land owner, was pro-
prietor of a ferry to convey persons across the river. The ferry consisted
of a small flat and a large canoe. Elijah Horsley was employed by
Yattier to manage it. Hogan Creek was crossed by the same means, no
bridge having been built until fifteen years later, when Mr. George W.
Lane, as an individual enterprise, constructed a toll bridge across the
mouth of the creek. His bridge was of great importance to the young
town. Mr. Lane afterward sold it out to Dearborn County, and when
the old structure became insecure the present bridge was erected.
Going back to Squire Bartholomew's docket, a brief review of its
contents may be of interest, as showing how and to whom justice was ad-
ministered in Aurora fifty years ago. The following record appears on
page 4, and is among the first cases entered: "State of Indiana vs.
John Hiffi In a charge of abuse and insult to the wife of Ebenezer
Lange; warrant issued February 18, 1822; the defendant came and the
jury summoned, empaneled and sworn. After a proper and full in-
vestigation of all things ajDpertaining to the charge, the jury retired,
and soon agreed upon a verdict of eight dollars fine for the State of
Indiana. Daniel Baetholomew, J, P."
CITY OF .AURORA. 313
On the 20th day of March, 1822, for breach of peace and swearing,
Thomas Longley was fined 95 cents; same date, for "abuse and
threatening to his wife, who prayed surety of the peace," Thomas Daily was
found guilty and committed to jail. May 31, 1822, Axey Wilson was
tried by a jury for an assault upon a child. He was adjudged guilty and
fined 1 cent, to be applied to the State of Indiana. Samuel Roof ap-
pears on the 22d of July, 1822, and acknowledges himself indebted to
Henry Benson in the sum of 50 cents, together with interest thereon
nntil paid. On the 2l8t of August an execution was issued, by order of
the plaintiflf, and in default of payment the body of defendant was com-
mitted to jail ; Samuel Doolittle, constable. State of Indiana vs. Amasa
Ball. This was an action of assault and battery on the body of George
W. Thornton ; warrant issued September 2, 1822 ; returned the same
day with the body present. The jury was unable to agree. To quote,
from the docket, " The foreman retired and the balance was discharged,
and the defendant made his escape into Kentucky to those people whose
countenance favored his character." George W. Thornton then comes
forward as the defendant in an assault and battery case, but no witnesses
being presented against him he was discharged. " State of Indiana vs.
Samuel Eoof. The defendant was legally summoned and empaneled as
a juror November 2, 1822, when he retired from the room after the case
was submitted to the jury, and was absent some time; after which, with-
out permission, he went home and returned not again. It is therefore
considered that the State of Indiana recover of the defendant the sum
of $2, this the 2d day of November, 1822.
Daniel Bartholomew, J. P."
On the 1st day of October, 1822, James Green brought suit against
Torrence Curry to recover 37| cents. On the same day the
claim was paid, and Green's receipt appears on the docket.
Isaac Cannon vs. Jehial Buffington. An action for neglect of duty as
constable. No cause. Case dismissed at plaintiff's cost. Ebenezer
Grifiing for "contempt and abuse and trespassing on the rules of com-
mon decency and good order" was fined $1, November 10, 1822.
November 4, 1822, it required three juries to find John W. Ledbitter
guilty of assault and battery. Ledbitter was fined |5, and sat-
isfied the Court by note on the agent of.^ "Aurora Association."
Elias Conwell and Horace Bassett were prominent and influential men
in the days of which we write. Both were leading spirits in the or-
ganization and building up of the town. But they had their little
personal misunderstanding, as appears by the record of February 24,
1823. On that day Conwell committed an assault and battery on the
person of Bassett. and was arraigned for trial by jury. He was found
314 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
guilty and fined $2 and costs. Elijah Wbitten, in an action "for
profane swearing for seven different oaths, taken before me on the
6th day of March, 1824, at Aurora, for which the said Whitten was fined
one dollar for each oath." On the 7th of June, 1824, Michael Trester
brought suit against Isaac Miller on account of the freight on one barrel
of salt from Cincinnati to Aurora. Execution issued and placed in
hands of Robert Criswell, constable. Edmund Cheesman for an assault
upon Caleb Woods-worth, constable, while in the performance'of his duty
as constable, was adjudged guilty, and for want of bail committed.
In a suit for forcible entry and detainer, between Luke Erill, plain-
tiff, and Elias Conwell, defendant, March 19, 1825, wherein it was
alleged that Conwell took unlawful possession of abiailding belonging to
Erill, and in which considerable public interest was probably manifested,
the "Court adjourned to the meeting house." The following named
persons comprised the ^jury: David Boardman, John B. Chisman,
Noyes Canfield, Peter Carbaugh, John Vinson, Walter Kerr, William
Hancock, Jonathan Parks, David Walser, Conrad Huffman, Asa Shattuck
and Stephen J. Paine. Verdict for plaintiff. Thomas Sparks, for
swearing in open court, August 23, 1825. was fined $1. "The defendant
left the State and died," says the record, "but did not satisfy the
judgment." For assault and battery, April 29, 1826, John Brown was
fined $3. His fine was not paid, and Robert Criswell, constable, was
directed by the court to convey the defendant to the county jail for im-
prisonment. John Lasine for an assault upon his wife, Sunday,
October 7, 1827, was arrested on complaint of J. Wing, and brought
before the court in a state of intoxication. When sober he was
fined $1.
Charles Vattier, the land owner and enterprising business man, found
time, it would seem, to occasionally partake of the pleasures and pas-
times of social life, as witness this: On the 8th of December, 1830, he
was arraigned for assault and battery on the body of Peleg Bartlett, and
fined $3 and costs.
AURORA A CITY ITS MAYORS.
The city government commenced'in 1848, with John D. Haynes as
mayor. He was succeeded in 1851 by Solomon P. Tumy, who officiated
until 1859, with the exception of 1856, during which year Washington
Stark occupied the chair. John Gaff was elected in 1859, Frederick
Slater in 1861, Dr. George Sutton, 1863; R. Criswell, 1867; Frederick
Huckery, 1869; J. A. Emerie, 1871; Dr. Frederick Rectanus, 1873;
Edward H. Green, 1877, and Louis E. Beinkamp, the present incumbent,
was first elected in 1881, having since administered the affairs of the
office with commendable zeal.
CITY OF AURORA. 315
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE.
In the fall of 1852 a company was formed under the name of ' ' The
Eising Snn, Aurora & Lawrenceburgh Telegraph Company" for the
purpose of running the wires from the Lawi-enceburgh office to Aurora
and Rising Sun, establishing an office at each place. The office at Aurora
was located at the grocery^of | W. Webber & Co., on Third Street with
William Webber in charge.
In 1854 a new line of telegraph (the Wade patent) was built through
Aurora to run with the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad to St. Louis.
In the spring of 1879, the office of T. & J. W. Gaff & Co., of Aurora
and that of H. W. Smith & Co., of Cincinnati were connected by tele-
phone, messages being sent and received over the line on Friday, March
14, 1870.
THE CITY, 1858-59.
From a business standpoint, Aurora made the following exhibit in
1858-59, as shown by a State compilation published at that time:
Allen, W., carpenter.
Allen, E. B., blacksmith.
Andrews, A., grocer.
Beettner, H., barber.
Beerger, W., gunsmith.
Bess, F. M. , proprietor hotel.
Bloom, A., merchant tailor.
Bond, R. C, physician and surgeon./
Burns, F. A., boot and shoe-maker.
Bush, B. M., agent Adams Express.
Campbell & York, saddlers.
Carbough, J. H., attorney.
Chambers, Stevens & Co., dry goods, groceries, etc.
Cheek, George, dealer in bay.
Clark, Mrs. A. P., postmistress.
Cobb, John, coal dealer.
Cobb, O. P. & Co., pork packers, grocers, etc.
Cooper, C. H, «fe A. J., jewelers.
Crane, A. G. & Co. , manufacturers of bai'rels.
Cunningham, William, dealer in liquors.
Devons, J., woolen factory.
Dines, G., barber.
Dyke, N. tin-smith.
Ebersale & Haines, druggists.
Ebersale — physician and surgeon. '
Edwards, W. J. & Co., carriagfe- makers.
316 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
Fehling, C, grocer.
Fisher, P., boot and shoe-maker.
Gaff, T. & J. \V., millers, distillers, dry goods, groceries, etc.
Garmhausen, B., grocer.
Giedgold, J., meat market.
Giedgold, J. L. & M., livery stable.
Goldsmith, M., boots, shoes, etc.
Green, Ed H. , attorney,
Hamilton, J., hotel.
Harris, W. T., justice of the peace.
Hauck, L., barber.
Held, P. H., merchant tailor.
Hettenbergh, S., exchange.
Hill, S. P. & Co., druggists.
Holman & Haynes, attorneys
Holz, Dr., physician & surgeon.
Hubbartt, R., grocer.
Hubbartt, A. B., carpenter.
Huckery, F. , justice of the peace.
Hurlbert, L. G., lumber dealer and mill factory.
Ittner, J., boot and shoe-maker.
Kasner, P., bakery.
Kelsey, J. A. & Co., wharf -boat.
Kemp, M., grocer, baker and liquor dealer.
Kreitlein, A., grocer.
Lamkin, H., tailor.
Johnson, A., baker.
Laupus, J. G., tobacconist.
Lansberry, A. B., wagon-maker.
Latimore, T., carpenter.
Lozier, Abram, dry goods and groceries.
McCreary, R. E., dry goods and groceries!
McHenry, B. N., blacksmith.
Malony, J., grocer.
Marron, H., furniture.
Mayer, Cohn & Co., clothiers.
Milburo, J. N., jewelry and book store.
Miles, I., attorney.
Parker, S. , fruit and vegetables.
Phalin, I., grocer.
Pierce, S. R., dry goods and groceries.
Pyle, J., ambrotypist.
CITY OF AURORA. 317
Radspiner, J. F., grocer.
Rider, J., boot and shoe-maker.
Rothirt, F., grocer.
Sadlei', Mrs. C. , milliner.
Schultze, A., hotel.
Sherrod, W., barber.
Sherwood, Mrs. Mary., milliner.
Shipper, B., coal dealer.
Siemontel, M., bakery and confectionery.
Siemontel, brewery.
Siemontel, M. & C, millers.
Slater, F., grocer.
Small, E., dealer in hay.
Squibb, W. P. & Co., dealers in liquors and groceries.
Stafford, J., grocer.
Stark, Mrs. M., milliner.
/Stedman & Co., foundry.
Stevens, J., blacksmith.
Stevens, W. F., insurance.
Stratter, L. S., dry goods.
Taylor, G. W., livery stable.
Terrill, R. Q., attorney.
Tuck, N. H., ambrotypist.
Tumy, S. P., mayor and dealer in stoves and tinware.
Twyman, B. W., attorney.
Veiht, F. L., physician and surgeon.
Weaver, J. W., commission merchant.
Wehe, A., saddler.
Wilke, J. H., grocer.
Worth, F. D., hotel.
^Wymond & Gibson, coopers.
Young & Miller, boots and shoes.
GKOWTH AND PROGRESS.
Important eras in the city's history may be said to have commenced,
first, with the construction of the bridge across the mouth of Hogan
Creek by George W. Lane in 1836; at which time another was built
west of the city, the completion of which was of the first importance to
the place. That summer a number of young men of energy settled in
Aurora, who assisted in different ways in diffusing life and energy to the
old inhabitants of the town. L. G. Hurlbert as a merchant; Dr. George
Sutton as a physician; L. C. Hastings as editor of the Indiana Signal;
318 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
A. C. Cole, a young lawyer, who died at an early age; Charles and
Thomas Folbre, George W. Cochran, Isaac Hancock, all young men of
energy and also extensive river traders. About this time Thomas Folbre
commenced the erection of a large brick building, which stands on
Second Street, at that time the largest and finest building in the town.
Second, with the establishment of the distillery and mills of Thomas
and J. W. Gaff in 1843. Third, with the completion of the Ohio & Mis-
sissippi Railroad, to the town in 1854, the location here of the extensive
car shops of that road and the construction of the turnpikes about that
time. Fourth, with the location of the Great Crescent Brewery in 1873,
and the establishing of the mammoth industry the rolling-mill, by
the Aurora Iron Company in 1873, which finally became the nail and
iron works of O. P. Cobb & Co.
The census of 1840 gave Aurora a population of 490; of 1850, 2,051;
of 1860, 2,990; of 1870, 3,304; of 1880, 4,435.
The post office was established in Aurora in 1819.
The printing press was introduced into the village in 1836.
The first steamboat was built at and launched from Aurora in 1824.
The electro-magnetic telegraph was put in operation in 1852.
The railroad was completed to the city in 1854.
Street lamps were introduced into the city in 1861 and a portion of
the streets were then lighted.
The streets were lighted by gas in 1874.
A steam fire engine was brought to the city in 1876.
The city was connected by telephone with Cincinnati in 1879.
In the Western Republican of October 5, 1847, it was stated that
"Notwithstanding high water and hard times, our city marches straight
onward. The cause is obvious. Capital, enterprise and industry are a
part of the secret of its success — these combined must overcome every
obstacle. A friend has taken the pains to give us the number of houses
which have been built since the first of March, and under contract to be
completed this season, to-wit: brick, 18; frame 60; additions, 12; total,
90."
The total number of buildings erected in Aurora in 1850 was 123;
100 of which were dwellings, 2 churches, 1 mill and distillery, 10 ware-
houses, 2 livery stables, 4 blacksmith shops and 4 cooper shops, costing
$120,000.
Below is given the names of such builders of houses wherein the cost
of the building amounts to $1,000.
CITY OF AURORA. 319
Henry Walker : . |13,000
T. & J. W. Gaff(raill and distillery) 30,000
Joseph W. Gaflf g'ooo
Presbyterian Church 8 000
Dr. Sutton 5^000
J. & 0. P. Cobb (store room and pork house) 5 000
P- B. Vail 3;000
Levi Stevens 3 000
John Shattuck 2 000
Henry Blasdell 2 000
B- M. Bush ;.";; 1^300
Bierman 1000
Samuel Lewis 1 000
$83,000
' 'About 1850, Aurora had grown up to the business increase caused
by distilling, milling, etc. Next came the railroad, the shops were
established close by, and another rapid growth followed. Again
aboat five years ago we had caught up in population with our business,
and a temporary stoppage ensued. Lately added a brewery, a furniture
factory, a chair factory, and an immense rolling-mill to our industries."
— Dearborn Independent, 1873.
In November of the following year, the same paper said, "Improve-
ment on every hand is going on, our streets are being improved, busi-
ness houses are being erected, dwellings are fairly springing up, and
new branches of business are opening up constantly. Our population is
increasing, rapidly, business men, professional men and capitalists are
locating here, and Aurora is becoming noted for her business energy and
enterprise."
A writer for one of the city papers in 1879, speaking of forty years
ago, said, ' 'Then what is now the heart of the city, was a common, multis
generous of ravines, mud holes, jimson and dog-fennel patches. The
Third Ward of Sunnyside and West Side, were either cornfields or heavy
forests, while our lively suburb, Cochran, was the elegant hay farm of
the gentleman after whom it is named. The roads leading to the interior
were of such a character that the best one ascended the hills at such a
grade as to require a good team and light wagon to haul a barrel of salt,
or whisky and keg of dog- leg tobacco to Wilmington, then the county
seat, and seat of learning of Dearborn and Ohio Counties; but now only
the decayed remains of its former self. Whilst the roads leading both
up and down the river were in such a condition, without bridges, and
the streams ferried in such a manner that no prudent life insurance com-
pany could afi"ord to take risks on persons who traveled them. Ten
years later we find Aiirora incorporated and improving her streets, which
together with the liberal use of her influence and means in relocating,
320 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
grading aud mettling all her roads, inlets and outlets, soon marked
a progress that has continued until Aurora, solid Aurora has expand-
ed clear across the valley and above the confluence of the two Hogans,
and is rapidly climbing the surrounding hills, which aflford the most
delightful views to be found in the Ohio Valley."
Concerning the city's improvements we quote from the Independent
of January 10, 1878: "Our city has come out wonderfully in the last
seven months, as the following summary will show: Beginning on Fifth
Street, we have J. J. Metcalfe, a fine two-story dwelling; Crescent Brew-
ery, two-story bottling establishment. On Fourth Street, John Stark,
dwelling; James R. Hayes, two-story dwelling; H. J. Marshall, renova-
tion of house; Prof. Tufts and Charles Stevens, each a two- story dwell-
ing. Third Street, Episcopal Church and Nees' new hotel. Second
Street, Johnson's two-story brick business house. Bridgway Street,
Martin Scheuerman, two-story brick dwelling; Romstein, one-story busi-
ness house. Mechanic Street, Al Bloom, dwelling; Main Street, Small's
and Wilke's buildings, both large, two-story business houses. On Judi-
ciary, the complete overhauling and repairing of the old Weaver and
Groves property; also dwellings of P. Garrity, destroyed by fire, and
York's large livery stable. In the Third Ward the building has
been confined exclusively to dwellings, as follows: Johnson Street, John
Twentyman, E. Cole and Pardee Bench; Broadway, Charles Glass and
P. Garrity; Moore Street, Dent Wymond; Manchester Street, W. H.
Cobb; Sunnyside, E. D. Haynes, B. F. Trester, Jr., Thomas Tan-
ner; Eastside, William Block; in Westside, Frank Briddell, Charles
Shepard, Rev. I. B. Grundy, John Gifiin and George Lamb have
erected handsome dwellings. Never, perhaps, in the history of the city,
has so much building been done in so short a time. Next season many
more buildings will go up. The foundation for the Nutshell & Cunning-
ham , and the Mabin Brothers' buildings, on Second Street, have been
laid, and the erection of large business houses thereon, will begin early
in the spring. We venture the assertion that no town of its size in this
part of the country has made the advancement that our city has during
the past year."
FIRE OF 1882.
September 4. 1882, occurred the greatest fire at Aurora, that the city
ever experienced, by which was consumed nearly a whole block of build-
ings. The fire originated in the chair factory of John Cobb & Co., on
Bridgeway Street, nearly opposite the Indiana House. The wind was
blowing a sweeping gale from the burning building right into the heart
of the city, and most of the surrounding buildings were wooden struct-
ures. The tire extended in every direction, except to the north. The
CITY OF AURORA. 321
Indiana House burned, everything east of it on Fourth Street, John
Siemantel's buildings on Third Street, also Adolph Mann's saloon, and
ail the out-houses between Third and Fourth Streets, and the first alley
east of Bridgeway, burned. On the west side of Bridgeway Street the chair
factory, engine-house, dry house and ware-house, a carpenter shop and brick
dwelling, and all buildings there between Third and Fourth and First,
were burned. Seventy-five thousand dollars worth of property, covering
a whole square, was nearly wiped out. The steam fire engine from the
Walsh & Kellogg Distillery, of Luwrenceburgh, was sent down, and one
telegraphed for from Cincinnati, but did not come,a8 the fire was got under
control. The principal losses were as follows: John Cobb & Co.,
$30,000, insurance to the amount of $8,000; Mrs. Brewington, $5.000, no
insurance; John H. Siemantel, $7,000, insurance $3,000; Adolph Stamm,
$6,000, insurance $3,000; M. Giegoldt, $15,000, insurance $6,000.
FLOODS— 1882— 1883— 1884.
During the great floods in the Ohio River, occurring in February,
1882. 1883 and 1884, Aurora shared the same fate as did her sister
Ohio River cities that were so unfortunate as not to have been built on
elevations.
The following extracts are taken from one of the city papers of those
years, as showing the rise, progress and receding of the waters, and
the general aspect of things: On Tuesday morning the weather was
quite cold and snow fell in fitful gusts, yet the rise continued slowly but
surely. The water flooded Main Street from the bridge half way to
Second Street, and from the foot of Second Street to Chambers &
Stevens' corner. The people living on these streets were forced to move
into the upper stories of their houses. On third Street the water came
half way up to Main, on Fourth Street nearly to Judiciary, while it
reached Peter Koehler's corner at the foot of Fifth Street, shutting off
communication, except by boats to "Texas." In the afternoon the rise
was about half an inch per hour. The floor of the Main Street bridge
was covered before 5 o'clock, and the water worked up in the gutter
opposite Riddell's drug store, and up on Main to McClellan's blacksmith
shop. At 8 o'clock Tuesday evening the river came to a stand, the
Big Miami having subsided, and between 11 and 12 o'clock it began to
recede, falling by morning about eleven inches, which was a great relief
to everybody. — Independent, February 23, 1882.
While only two or three small dwelling houses are turned over at
this writing (Wednesday evening) nearly half the houses in Aurora have
water in them, varying in depth from the eave of the roof of those
houses in the low lands to more than a foot on the floor of Leive Bros
10
322 HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES.
jewelry store, in the opera bouse building. Hundreds of dwelling
houses will suffer more or less damages, and will require thorough reno-
vating when the water goes down. — Independent, February 15, 1883.
"As we went to press last week the Ohio River was still rising here
and, although it was the last day of its climbing up and up to a height
beyond man's memory, the strangest thing was that on that last day,
Wednesday, February 14, 1883. it rose at a rate equal to any day after
it had overflown its banks. The water continued to rise during all of
Wednesday and un